Dominant
by Serpent Tailed Angel
Summary: Since starting their relationship Sting and Natsu have been fighting to be the dominant one, but their competition turn sour when Sting gets pregnant. Keeping the mess from turning into a tabloid scandal and figuring out if they really like each other enough to be a family is already a hassle, but Natsu has a knack for getting into crazy adventures on top of everything else. Mpreg
1. Dominant

**STA**: I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack! I haven't really been inspired to write an mpreg for like, 3 years! Whoo!

Just a heads up, the explanation Gajeel is going to give for how Sting was able to get pregnant is BS. If I ever see anyone actually use that explanation, I stop reading their story right then and there, because no remotely decent mpreg would truly use that explanation. Or something about "it just happens in my family" or "the power of love made it possible" or any other crap like that. "We have no idea how this is possible. Moving on." Is a better excuse than those pieces of *_there is no strong enough swear word to describe my hatred for these excuses. Please create your own.*_

But back to Gajeel. When he starts spewing BS, please grit your teeth and bear it. The pain will be over soon.

* * *

Sting had finally managed to get on top, something he accomplished less often than he'd like to admit, when a quiver in his stomach gave Natsu the opening to flip him back over and pin him to the mattress.

"Not on my watch." Natsu smirked, ready to get to business.

"Just because…" Sting paused, feeling the quiver turn into full blown nausea. "Crap. Get _off_ of me."

"Because you're losing? I don't think so."

"Get off of me before I throw up on you." Sting elaborated.

Natsu let Sting go.

Usually Rogue tried to pretend he was alone in the house when Natsu came to visit, and that those noises from the other room were just… birds. Very active birds, for which he really ought to hire an exterminator, or just send Frosch and Lector out there, but having no experience pretending that the sound of someone vomiting was just a bird, he couldn't help but peek in to make sure everything was okay.

Thank God they were both covered. Ignoring the heat rising in his cheeks he focused on Sting, who was the one leaning over the side of the bed, and asked "You alright?"

"Just peachy." Sting grumbled.

"I guess the game's over." Natsu sighed, grabbing what clothing he could without having to get up and expose himself in front of his lover's roommate.

"You two probably shouldn't… play, for a while." Rogue did his best not to grimace at the word. "Sting… are you-"

"Fine." Sting assured him. "The doctor said I was just fine."

"Doctor?" Natsu froze in the middle of pulling on his vest. "I didn't hear anything about a doctor. Are you okay?"

"Not at all. I mean, I just said that doctor told me I was fine." Sting retorted, wrapping the bed sheets around himself tighter now that Natsu wasn't hiding under them. "I was just feeling…" he groped for the right word. "Off balance. I wouldn't have even bothered with it but Rogue said something about my smell having changed too. He said he couldn't find anything wrong with me and that was that."

If Sting said he was fine he was probably fine, but Natsu did see that Rogue, who'd known the blond much longer, didn't look too convinced. "Well, you should tell me in the future anyway." He tied the straps on his sandals stood up, fully dressed. "And when you get over your cold, too."

"Yes, mother." Sting threw a pillow at Natsu. "Rogue, where do we keep the mop?"

"I'll clean up." Rogue assured him. Mopping up vomit was a lot less disgusting that having to wash sheets, which would have also been his job thanks to Sting's need to never be caught doing anything 'girly.' In a way the vomit was actually a blessing. "You just rest."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Hurry up and get better." Natsu told him, a broad grin spreading across his lips. "It's more fun to dominate you when you aren't sick."

Sting had a four letter explicit for him.

"I will, next time." Natsu promised. "I'll visit again soon."

* * *

"If a doctor told him he's alright, then I'm sure he's okay." Wendy assured Natsu. "If you're really worried I can go check on him, but… um…"

"Nah." Natsu eased back into his seat at the guild bar. "If you say he's fine. I mean, I'm more likely to believe it coming from you then from him."

"Not to mention that blond brat would bite Wendy's head off if she tried." Gajeel grumbled. "Just the idea that someone could be in a relationship with him is messed up."

"The relationship is messed up even without taking Sting into account." Gray, who'd come over just to take a jab at Natsu's love life, argued. "Have you seen the two of them together? They're always fighting over which one of them is dominant. In bed."

"Care to say that again, droopy eyes?" Natsu demanded.

"Make me, flame brain!" Gray smirked, readying his first spell.

"It's important, you know." Gajeel cut in before a fight could break out. Not that the fight mattered to him. He'd just been waiting weeks for Natsu to notice something anyway. "Which dragon slayer is dominant."

"Oh, you want to get in on their creepy little love fest?" Gray asked mockingly. Gajeel and Natsu teaming up against him wasn't something he needed, but if he let Natsu calm down…

"No. I know I'm on top without pinning someone to a bed." Gajeel smirked at Natsu's squawk of indignation. "But you know what can happen to a submissive dragon slayer, right?"

"No." Gray admitted. If it really did matter… Natsu's 'relationship' still barely went past friends with benefits, but at least it would explain the fighting.

"Well, I didn't expect you too." Why did Gajeel sound so wickedly delighted? "But Natsu, surely Igneel told _you_ about it?"

"Of… of course he did." Natsu lied.

"He didn't, did he? You two must be acting on instincts then, if you didn't know that a submissive male could get pregnant."

Wendy, who'd been growing more and more convinced that this was a conversation that she was far too young to overhear, decided that actually she needed to be the voice of reason. "Males can't have babies." Or _could_ they? She'd always thought that was the case but if the adults said otherwise… then again, they were adults from Fairy Tail.

"They can if they're dragon slayers." Gajeel explained, pretending not to notice that his ridiculous claim was drawing the attention of the rest of the guild. "Dragons are scarce, right? They've got a built in way of dealing with too few of a certain gender. If there are only female's, the most dominant can act as a male for reproduction. If there are only males then the most submissive can act as a female. As dragon slayers, we _do_ take on the traits of dragons, and there aren't a whole lot of people who use our magic."

"…That's stupid." Natsu told him.

"It's the truth." Gajeel insisted.

"Actually, I have heard of some types of fish that can do that." Bisca admitted. "But dragons… well I guess you three would know more about them than any of us… still…"

"Mama, what's re-po-duck-shun?" Asuka asked.

While Bisca and Alzack tried to give their daughter some variant of the stork story, Natsu thought over her claim and asked Gajeel seriously "So… I could have gotten Sting pregnant?"

"Or him you, but if he's the one who's sick…" Gajeel let the idea hang there.

"I… I'd better go check on him." Natsu decided, hurrying out of the building.

The guild buzzed for some time afterward, repeatedly forcing Gajeel to verify his claim, and questioning how-should he be right-Sting would actually be able to carry that child. Having not thought his story through that far, Natsu wouldn't have thought to ask about any of that, after all, Gajeel told them he didn't know the details.

Wendy waited until the buzz died down before asking Gajeel quietly, in a whisper too soft for all but their ears "Could I really get someone pregnant if I was more aggressive than them?"

Gajeel considered it for a moment. Wendy awfully was young to poison with his lies. If she grew up believing that it could come back to bite him. "Nah."

"But you said-"

"Juvia dragged to see some shady pharmacist about a love potion. She went on and on about her dreams about having a family with Gray." Gajeel told her. "He seemed to misunderstand what she wanted. He gave her some sort of super fertility drug instead of a date rape-er!" She was only twelve! "A 'classic love potion.' I was trying to swap out Gray's drink before she could do something funky to him with it and accidentally gave it to Sting."

"That's horrible!" Wendy exclaimed loud enough for everyone without a dragon slayer's hearing to catch.

"Hey, those two needed the heads up." That, and it would be a riot to see that blond brat burdened with a baby. He hadn't _meant_ to give the potion to Sting, but he hadn't tried too hard to stop it. If that brat's nose was so broken than he couldn't notice something in his drink than he deserved whatever he was going to be going through.

* * *

**STA**: Just for the record, there are, in fact, fish who can change their gender if they're dominant/submissive enough. It is not, unfortunately, something humans can do. Also, love potions are totally date rape drugs. The Weasley twins produce and sell date rape drugs. To teenagers. They even have a smuggling business for them.

_edit_: Just realized I mixed up Natsu and Gray's eye insults.


	2. Positive

"I've never heard of that." Rogue deadpanned.

"But Gajeel said… and his smell…" Natsu paused. "And the vomiting earlier today. Pregnant people get sick, right?"

"Pregnant _women_ get sick." Lector told him. "Pregnant _men_ don't exist."

"Fro doesn't think it's possible either."

"Well he can still check, right?" Natsu asked. "What harm could it do? Where is Sting anyway?"

"Sleeping." Rogue started to shut the door when an idea struck him. "One condition."

"Hn?"

"I'll wake Sting and have him go with you to whichever poor physician you want to have see if he's pregnant on one condition. When you two 'play' from now on it has to be at _your_ house."

Natsu frown at that idea. He didn't have any particular issue with it, but he knew Sting didn't like having to be careful not to break any of his memorabilia in the heat of the moment. Then again, 'your house' could just mean his yard. He lived far enough out of town for that. It wasn't like he got visitors that could see anything they shouldn't anyway. Even a hotel would probably work just fine. "Alright. Wake him up."

Rogue disappeared down the hall, leaving Natsu alone with the Exceed.

"I hope you're not planning on making him see someone local." Lector said before the awkward silence could stretch too long. "Sting has a reputation to uphold. If people start talking about how he thought he could have gotten pregnant it will look bad."

"I wanted him to see the lady everyone in the guild goes to." Natsu assured Lector.

"Well _we're_ not carrying you on this mad quest." Lector declared.

"Fro won't help either."

"That's why I said _we_ you idiot!" Lector scolded.

"Fro's sorry!"

Natsu scowled. He'd never really liked how the two interacted, but if their slayers saw nothing wrong with it then it was probably okay. "You want to make Sting ride a train while he's at least sick-"

"At least?" Sting's voice drew Natsu's eyes back up from the cats to human heights. "Natsu, what's going on? I know you said you'd be back soon, but this is a little early, don't you think?"

"Well, Gajeel said-" Natsu paused, seeing Rogue shaking his head behind Sting, though he had to stop when Sting followed Natsu's gaze back. "I mean-I was thinking, you should see Fairy Tail's healer. She doesn't like humans much, but she's really good. She might see something the doctor missed."

Sting stared at him, waiting for Natsu to slip up and give the real reason. When Natsu didn't crack Sting sighed and looked down at Lector. "Well? Are you going to make me get on a train while I'm already sick?"

"…no." Lector admitted.

"Ah! I left in such a hurry that I forgot to bring Happy."

Sting rolled his eyes and bent over to pick up Lector, wincing when the movement stirred his stomach. "You didn't realize that on the way here?"

"Frosch," Rogue started, "can you-"

"Fro will help!"

To Natsu's relief, Frosch was able to carry him without upsetting his stomach, and Sting made the trip without getting sick either, though when he mentioned that the two began to bicker over Sting's condition. Apparently the blond was already feeling so much better that he was beginning to doubt that he needed to get looked at again.

"We aren't doing _anything_ else until you do." Natsu threatened.

Sting grumbled something about how only women were supposed to withhold sex and fell silent.

Frosch and Lector didn't land right outside Porlyusica's home, but they came close enough. The smell of herbs was so strong that the dragon slayers could have found it from a mile away, and it made bile rise in Sting's throat as they got closer.

"We don't have to go _in_ there, do we?" He asked, trying to hide his discomfort after the fuss he'd raised.

"I'd prefer you not." A stern voice behind them declared. "What did you come here for?"

Both boys turned to face Porlyusica. "Gajeel said that Sting might…" Natsu glanced to Sting. Now that he was here could he mention it, or would Sting still take it the wrong way? "be… um…"

Thinking Natsu was hesitating to tell _her _and that Sting was fully aware of his situation, Porlyusica nodded. "He mentioned the possibility to me himself. I've been expecting you two for a week. I have a test prepared already so come this way."

Years of being screamed at trained Natsu to automatically follow her towards her house, but Sting hesitated. "I thought you'd 'prefer we not' go in there." He accused. Those smells… Ugh! Was she brewing poison?

Porlyusica turned to scold him, but gave up before she could even open her mouth. "The scents are bothering you, I take it. Fine. I'll bring it out here."

Natsu followed her for a few steps when she continued towards her house, then realized he no longer needed to and returned to Sting's side. "Just do what she says. She can get scary."

"Wuss. She's an old lady."

"She's an old lady with a broom!" Natsu argued. "Besides, we're probably not allowed to fight back." The idea hadn't even occurred to him before.

"That's still no reason to be so scared." Sting growled.

"Yes it… you're looking sort of green."

"Can we maybe stand a little further back?" Sting asked. Motion would probably only make his upset stomach worse but if it got him away from the herbs…

"You can stay right there." Porlyusica told them, coming out with two bottles. "Drink this one first. It will help settle your stomach."

She'd barely set it down before Sting snatched it up and downed the concoction. For one horrible moment he thought it would be sent back up, then his stomach began to settle down. That stuff worked fast!

"The other one isn't for drinking." She informed his as he reached for it. "Natsu, leave."

Natsu could feel Sting's disappointed gaze on his back as he hurried away with the exceed. Any shame he may have felt knowing his lover thought he was afraid of an old lady was forgotten as he heard the two start to bicker. It sounded like Porlyusica's all gender inclusive pregnancy test functioned about the same as any store brand.

When Natsu came back Sting's face was beat red, though from furry or embarrassment Natsu couldn't tell.

"It's turning blue." Porlyusica declared after studying the no longer as pleasant smelling mixture. "It's positive."

"Good positive, or you-have-whatever-we-aren't-telling-you-about positive?" Sting asked. He sounded a bit more subdued now that he'd faced the old lady's wrath himself.

Porlyusica looked up and glared at Natsu, who stumbled to explain himself. "Rogue didn't believe me, and then when I started to tell Sting he thought it would be a bad idea, and he didn't want to come anyway so if he knew it was something unlikely he wouldn't have come at all, and on the way he-"

"What am I positive for?" Sting interrupted.

"Have fun." Porlyusica informed both of them. "I'll give you two some more stomach medicine. He'll be needing it."

* * *

"Is it some sort of new virus? An STD?" Sting asked.

"No."

"So it's not related to our sleeping together?"

"It is."

Sting gestured for Lector to land, forcing Frosch and Natsu to follow. "We're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong with me."

"You could just tell Rogue that you tested positive." Natsu suggested.

"Natsu…" Sting growled.

Think. How would Lucy present this? "Do you like kids?"

Sting continued to growl.

Okay… how would Gray present it? "You're pregnant."

Sting paused for a moment, processing the message, then scowled. "Seriously, Natsu."

"You can ask Rogue." Natsu insisted. "Or them."

Sting followed Natsu's desperate gaze to Lector and Frosch. "That's what he was worried about when he showed up." Lector confirmed. "He said something about dragon slayer magic making it possible and wanting to make sure he hadn't gotten you pregnant. Rogue didn't believe it but he let Natsu take you anyway."

"If this is a joke…" Sting started. Not that he knew how to end his threat. He was beginning to fixate on the possibility that he really might be pregnant. Didn't that mean no fighting and getting fat for nine months? "How would that even work?"

"Well Gajeel said that the more dom…" Sting hated Natsu being the dominant one. "Since I'm usually on top, our magic can somehow recognize that there aren't many slayers and does something to fix it. I think it was supposed to be a trait dragons developed to survive, and we just get it as part of the slayer magic. Also, something about fish."

Sting sat down in the dirt and tried to try and let the idea sink in. "I still don't believe this." He lied.

"Well… can you take it easy until we're sure? I can pay your rent."

Sting shook his head. If it came down to it Rogue could definitely take care of everything on his own, and he knew how much of Natsu's earnings went towards repairing homes or bridges or whatever the collateral damage of the day was. "How would it get out of me?"

The silence stretched for several minutes.

"But you'll take it easy, right?" Natsu finally asked.

"I'm not… yeah… fine." Sting sighed. "If this is real, you have to put on as much weight as I do. I'm _Sting_. I'm the white dragon slayer and ace of Sabertooth. The unquestionable strongest guild-before you people had to go and not be dead. Do you have any idea what this will do to my reputation?"

"The same thing it would do to anybody's, probably." Natsu deadpanned. "Just wear something that actually covers your stomach."

Sting nodded. He'd been meaning to do that anyway, since his stomach was starting to show signs of getting soft. Because he was pregnant? It did fit. And the shift in his organs to support a kid would certainly change his center of balance.

Holy shit. He was having a kid.

"Are you alright? You look pale."

"Fine." Sting took a deep breath and looked at the ten small vials of stomach medicine he'd been given. "These won't last nine months."

"So we buy more. They make stuff like this for women, right? I can just ask Bisca where she-"

"You can't _tell_ anyone!" Sting exclaimed.

"Well, Gajeel sort of told everyone at the guild that I could have gotten you pregnant." Natsu admitted. "I left in a rush to see you so they're probably placing bets right now on if you're really having a kid or not."

Sting groaned.

"How could you be so careless?" Lector demanded. "They'll tell everyone about this!"

"I'll ask them to keep quiet." Natsu promised. "I'm sorry."

They both looked to Sting to see if he had anything to add. "Lector… go back and ask that dev… uh… woman if she was really checking to see if I was pregnant." She'd seemed far too serious to go along with a practical joke. "Natsu… can you walk home?"

Natsu nodded. "We're not too far from Magnolia yet. You don't mind going home alone?"

"No. Thanks. Frosch, can you take me back? I… want to lie down."

Lector glared at Frosch, not at all pleased with the idea of somebody else carrying his slayer, but took off back towards Porlyusica's.

"Are you alright?" Natsu asked for the umpteenth time that day.

"Yeah. I just… need to let this sink in." Sting took a deep breath and tried to look like his usual confident self. "Have fun walking."

Natsu didn't bother to jab back as Frosch lifted Sting up and flew away.

* * *

"So?" Cana asked the second he stepped through the doors of the guild hall.

Natsu glanced over at a board leaning against the wall. Whoever had put it together in the three hours or so that he'd been gone had estimated that the odds were 9 to 2 in favor of Gajeel being full of it, but there were at least five times as many tallies marked for people having bet on Sting being pregnant. "I guess I'm going to be a dad."

The news was met with an uproar of congratulations, apologies, or laughs depending on the person, but for Fairy Tail it was a surprisingly low key reaction. After the initial wave interest in the news almost died out completely.

"Did something happen while I was gone?"

Erza shook her head. "Not really. We just got a message from Je-from Crime Sorcière." She explained. "It's nothing big, but they asked us to be on the lookout for a new dark guild in our area. They're not sure, but they've heard reports of Erigor and Angel."

Natsu drew a blank.

"The wind freak you fought over the Lullaby flute and one of the Oracion Six." Gray told him.

"Oh! That guy." Natsu shrugged. "I beat him before."

"You don't want a rematch?" Lucy asked.

"Maybe later. I told Sting that you all heard about how I could have gotten him pregnant, and he wanted you guys to keep quiet about it. Something about his reputation."

Gajeel snickered, which earned him a slap from Levy, but most of the guild nodded or murmured their agreement. It wasn't there news to share anyway.

"If you two have any questions, just let me know." Bisca told him. "If he wants it kept secret I imagine you two won't have many options for who to go to if he needs help."

"And if being pregnant is completely different for a man?" Gray asked. No one seemed to care.

"I can't believe a _boy_ is having a kid before I am." Erza sighed, casting the letter from Jellal a spiteful look. He'd had that gall to include a line about his supposed fiancée. Well she'd showed him. She'd shared _the whole letter_ he'd sent her with the guild. She hoped he had fun with all their questions the next time he showed up. "Tell Sting I said congrats."

He'd try to kick her ass for that, but Natsu kept that thought to himself. "He wasn't too thrilled."

"Tell him I said congrats." Erza ordered

"A-aye."

"Natsu! Will I be the baby's uncle?" Happy asked.

"No silly. You'll be his brother." Lisanna told Happy.

"Uh, h-he can be the uncle." Natsu stuttered.

"If you're a man, you'd make me the god father."

"It's… probably going to be Rogue." Natsu couldn't really see himself arguing for one of his friends more passionately than Sting would argue for Rogue. He wasn't nearly that close to Elfman. He'd only be able to put up a serious fight for a member of his team, and then there was a much bigger issue. Did he really want _Gray_ looking after his kid? His baby would grow up to be a stripper!

Natsu blinked, surprised by the thought. His baby? Sting didn't even look pregnant yet, didn't even fully accept that he was pregnant yet, and he was already thinking about how his kid would grow up. Lucy's weirdness must have been rubbing off on him.

* * *

Rogue raised an eyebrow when Sting trudged in with only one of the exceed and no boyfriend, but didn't comment. Sting looked beat after all, and traveling around when you were sick was never a good way to energize yourself.

"So?"

"… Do you like kids?"

"Sting's pregnant." Frosch announced.

"Mm-hm." Rogue kept a level gaze on both of them. "And you believe this?"

Sting nodded, then paused and shook his head. "Not completely but… aside from being a guy it fits, and I don't think the woman Natsu had me see was the type to pull some sort of elaborate prank, but she only said I was 'positive.' Natsu said she was checking to see if I was pregnant. I asked Lector to confirm it from her but…"

"Go back to bed. I'll let you know what she said when he gets here."

"Thanks."

* * *

**STA**: I kind of like doing one chapter a week. It keeps me from burning out by going to fast or by losing interest from not having to update, but I also hate only having one chapter up. I'll usually post on... I don't know, Friday or Saturday.

Hey, you know what's really annoying in summaries? Questions? Like for this story I could have written something like "Despite not being in a serious relationship, Natsu managed to get Sting pregnant. Will the child help their feelings develop into true love, or will they end up going their separate ways?" I mean, seriously? It's humor/romance. There's a 99% chance they get a happy ending, and a 1% chance they get an ending that, while not happy, is played for laughs. How do _you_ think that would end. The only thing less likely to make me click on a story is if the summary includes (canon character)X(My OC)

I think I did that rant before, but it still bugs me when I see it.

Only one review so far, but I need to get back into the habit of doing responses anyway...

_Neko-Tiara_: Thanks for being the first to review. Actually, a family of pigeons lives directly above my bedroom, and sometimes I have to tell myself that they just invited a bunch of friends and are throwing a late night party. They probably don't get as loud as people, but you could totally trick yourself into thinking it's a different sound.


	3. Sick

Rationing the medicine he'd been given so that he only took it when he was severely ill, it lasted two weeks, which happened to be when Sting decided that he could no longer put off hiding his stomach, and thus when he discovered that all his tight, muscle showing shirts only irritated his upset stomach.

"I thought certain things were supposed to trigger it. Like smells or times of the day." Natsu recalled from Bisca's lectures as he rubbed Sting's back.

Sting retched into the toilet once more and told Natsu "It's usually smells. I'm fine with most of them, but things like beer or fresh baked bread just set it off." The sort of things you'd smell if you had a keen nose and stepped into a guild hall, or if you lived across the street from a bakery. He really didn't care if bread still bothered him when it wasn't fresh. He hadn't allowed any in the house for days "Dammit. Is Rogue back yet?"

"You said he couldn't buy medicine for your pregnancy anywhere in this town." Natsu reminded him. "He has to take the train to the next town over."

"Urg… I think my stomach's empty now so-" Sting gagged and threw up the last of his stomach acid. "…okay. Now it's empty. I don't have eight more months of this, do I?"

"I don't think so." Natsu helped pull his lover up off the bathroom floor. "Don't you have any loose pajamas or… or any pajamas actually?"

Sting shook his head.

"Oh. Have you been working at all?"

"Just a little. Mostly the sort of odd jobs that your loser friends… um… that your team would go on for fun."

"They're not losers! Maybe Gray is, and Happy can't actually fight, and Erza might be crazy, and Lucy's Lucy, but they're not losers." Natsu argued.

"Whatever." String grumbled, pushing past Natsu and trudging out of the bathroom. He didn't have to like Natsu's team. He'd overheard them talking about their relationship before. "Natsu, since we aren't… doing anything, are we…?"

Natsu stared blankly at him, not getting what he was trying to say, or avoid saying more like it.

"You don't mind being with me even though I haven't been up for sex?" Sting clarified, cheeks turning pink at the bluntness of his questions.

Natsu's eyes widened in shock. Sure, that had been most of what they did since they hooked up, but "I like you." Natsu declared. "More than just in bed. Besides, I want to see my kid, and Rogue said that if I wanted any photos of you really pregnant I had to take them myself."

String growled. "If you pull out a camera I swear to God, Dragoneel, I will shove is so far up your-"

"We're back!" Frosch called.

Sting forgot his threat completely, hurrying over to the front door to see if Rogue had gotten the medicine.

"Here." Rogue set a bottle of pills out for Sting, who wasted no time taking one. "Was he okay?"

Natsu nodded, not wanting to have to deal with the shadow slayer more than he had to. While certainly not friendly, Rogue had never really been bad before, but he got the sense that he wasn't too well liked since getting Sting pregnant. It wasn't like he knew it would happen, but he guess he'd be a little sore with anyone who knocked Gray up. Of course, that would also be hilarious, but that was beside the point.

"How are you two doing on your rent? If you need any help-"

"We can pay it." Rogue assured him. "Sting can still work, anyway."

"You should at least let me pay you for the medicine." Natsu insisted. "Let me do _something_."

"Maybe you could let me crash at your place for a few days." Sting suggested. "Or until that bakery goes out of business. Better yet, you should accidentally destroy it on a job. Be on the lookout for ones that take place around here."

"I could just destroy it when I'm not working."

"For the last time, we're _not_ destroying the bakery." Rogue told Sting.

"We're going to be buying a lot of medicine, then." Sting told him. "These aren't working as fast as that old lady's, either."

"That's just 'cause the stuff she makes is amazing. Did you know one of Erza's eyes is fake? She made her a new one."

Rogue wiggled between the two as they began swapping increasingly outlandish guesses as to what all Porlyusica could do, and slipped into the kitchen to unpack the rest of the supplies he'd bought. Against Sting's wishes he'd stopped in at a hospital and asked a few basic questions, just saying that a certain guild mate was too embarrassed to go and ask anyone themselves. He was sure there'd still be rumors circulating that he'd gotten some girl pregnant.

There was no point in hiding from Sting that he'd done that either, since he'd picked up a book on pregnancy that he was going to make mandatory reading for both of them. Both referring to the blond idiot and his brain dead friend with benefits. Rogue hadn't been too fond of Natsu since the relationship started, and somehow getting Sting pregnant was the last straw, or would have been, if Natsu hadn't been trying so hard to be helpful. He'd figured from the look on Sting's face when Lector gave the final confirmation that Natsu would be across the border by that time the next day, but the old style slayer had shown up almost daily since to check up on Sting.

Of course, Natsu was good about looking out for his friends. Even if there wasn't much genuine 'love' between the two 'lovers' he was at least being a decent human being about the whole mess.

* * *

"They're getting bold. They took an assassination job in the middle of Magnolia."

"What? Did they… did they succeed?"

"Not yet. Erza's acting as a body guard until his own men get here. Even Twilight Ogre sent someone to help, but that's beside the point. Someone from this guild walked right into our town and tried to kill somebody under our noses." Macao hissed. "They don't see us as a threat at all!"

"Or they're challenging us." Laxus suggested. "I heard rumors that they've got Rustyrose too. This is a guild made entirely of people with a grudge against our guild."

"As if Raven Tail wasn't enough." Makarov sighed. "We'll need to warn everyone to be on guard for them."

"What about Sabertooth?" Mira asked.

"What about Sabertooth? They're miles from here." Makarov dismissed.

"Well, what about Sting?" Mira elaborated, setting her tray of beers down. "There hasn't been any word about it yet, but eventually people are going to notice he's…" she put a finger to her lip, thinking of the right word, then cheerfully said "growing."

"…I hadn't thought of that." Makarov admitted. "For now we'll make sure Natsu has Sting stay alert. We shouldn't issue a warning to the guild until we know Sting informed them of his condition."

The group fell into silence.

"Gajeel should have warned Natsu earlier. He could have… worn condoms of something. Put Sting on the pill." Macao said after a long enough pause.

"I don't think the pill has any effect on men." Mira told him. "Besides, Gajeel said he thought Natsu knew. Natsu _should_ have known. Why didn't Igneel tell him? This isn't a situation we needed to deal with. Especially on top of this guild. Do we have a name for it yet?"

"No. No new messages from Jellal either. Not since he mentioned plans to have Ultear infiltrate the guild."'

"I can't believe he's engaged. How does he plan to get married anyway? In a different country?" Mira asked. "They're like star crossed lovers. How romantic."

Laxus cleared his throat. "Focus."

"Erza just laughed and said it would never happen." Makarov told her. Upon being subject to his grandson's glare he hastily added "I'll go organize teams to try and find the guild's whereabouts. When Natsu returns let him know to warn Sting."

* * *

Natsu laughed when he was told to give the warning. "If I tell Sting that, he'll castrate me." He cheerfully informed Mira. "He's alternating between trying not to be clingy and accusing me of being clingy. He'll say I'm trying to be over protective."

"You don't sound too upset about that."

"It's funny once I'm done being mad." Natsu admitted. "Besides, it's a little hard to get upset with him, right now. You didn't see how sick he was this morning."

"You shouldn't have gotten him pregnant, then. Stupid." Gray told him.

Natsu growled, but resisted the urge to attack. "Whatever, Mister PMS."

Gray flushed at the accusation. Sure, he had been acting a little off recently, but still "You're mixing me up with your freak boyfriend."

That got Natsu up and ready to attack, but he caught sight of Erza glaring in the distance and sat back down, glowering instead.

Mira smiled. "You're really growing up, Natsu. Only a year ago you'd have started a fight regardless of who it was. Or would it be eight years ago?"

"Eh? I don't see why that matters." Natsu shrugged. "But, Mira, you're good at relationship things, right."

"Well… do you think so?"

"How would I know? I'm asking you."

Mira giggled. "Well, if you think so. Do you need help with something? Are you and Sting fighting?"

"About that…" Natsu stared off into space for a moment, trying to think of how to phrase his dilemma. "What do you think our relationship is?" Before Gray could say anything crude Natsu shot his a warning glare.

"Well… you two are…" fuck buddies. "Friends who happen to enjoy being in bed together." Mira decided. "Why?"

"Sting was worried today that I wouldn't want to see him since he was sick so often." Natsu confessed. "I thought we were at least friends, but if he didn't, then we weren't, were we?"

Mira sat down beside Natsu and thought about it for a minute. "Was he worried that you'd leave him alone, or that that's all there was to your relationship?"

"Um…" He hadn't been too clear on that, but digging into his wording just made it sound like he was worried about being alone.

Not getting the reason for Natsu's hesitation, Mira smirked. "I guess you wouldn't have noticed. Don't you worry, Natsu. I'm sure you mean a lot to Sting. He's liked you since he was a kid, right?"

"Yeah… right."

* * *

**STA**: Remember that filler episode where Juvia gave everyone that crazy potion she thought would make them love her, but it made them all crazy instead? Then at the end she decided the problem was the dose and shoved the whole bottle down Gray's throat? Yeah. That. That might be relevant.

Fun fact, by the way. Mashima's math is off. The story starts in the summer of 784, 7 years after the dragons vanish and the time skip begins in winter, roughly half a year later. They search for the bodies for half a year then 7 pass. The guild either vanished early winter of 784 (end of the year) or late winter of 785 (beginning of the year). Even counting that half year search in the seven years they're still show up early/mid spring (3 or 4 months before the tournament, if you want to count filler) and the tournament is taking place in July.

So that's summer 784 + half a year makes it winter 784 + 7 years should make it winter 791, but it's spring, so it either has to be 792 or it was only 6 years. _Then_ it turns to July for the tournament, meaning we should be going on the 15 year anniversary of the dragons disappearing and the calendar is off by a year. It just vanished in there somewhere, like Mashima forgot that all the stuff that happened so far took time to happen.

That will continue to bug me for, like, 3 years after the series ends.


	4. Missing

_moonlightnight1_ - Thank you.

_Neko-Tiara_ - The potion will come up later, but I've tried to write a double mpreg before and it's no fun to torture the characters if you have to split your time between them, so Gray won't be getting pregnant.

* * *

"But it's not _too_ noticeable, right?"

Not quite interested enough in how fat Sting felt to tear his attention away from breakfast, Rogue cast his stomach a sidelong glance. "Get looser clothes."

"There's a rumor going around that someone in Sabertooth is pregnant." Sting argued. "Even if no one sees me getting f-fa… fa… larger, they'll see me buying clothes for that and think I'm the father. And what if they figure out that I'm the mother?"

Rogue gave Sting's stomach a more thorough look over. At the three month mark Sting was definitely showing, but mostly only because he'd had such a flat stomach to start with. He was no larger than the majority of people who neither worked out nor overindulged. He just looked out of shape. "No one's going to think you're pregnant. Yet."

As if he'd believe that! "Lector?"

"Well…"

Rogue sighed. "Just ask Natsu to buy you new clothes. He never stops begging to do something anyway." It had gone from being a nice gesture to downright maddening.

"I would, but…" Sting looked away. "He hasn't shown up at all this week. Even before _this_ he never went a whole week without at least leaving a message at the guild hall." Not that Sting would know if Natsu had left a message. Stomach medicine or not, he did his best to avoid any smells that he suddenly found unbearable.

"Are you oka-"

"What's that asshole's problem anyway?" Sting demanded suddenly. "This is his fault! Who the hell does he think he is just _bailing_?"

"It's just been a week." Lector pointed out.

"Fro thinks you're overreacting."

"He's probably on a job." Rogue finished for them. "If he comes over here every other day then that doesn't give him much time to work." Sure, he'd figured Natsu would disappear after learning Sting was pregnant. He'd even spent two whole days ranting about it-or coming as close as he did to ranting, but that no longer seemed likely.

"Right." Sting took a seat beside Rogue. "I could just… go to the guild and ask, couldn't I? Maybe he'd be there anyway."

Rogue pushed his food aside and looked Sting in the eye. "Are you alright? You're being clingy."

"I'm… nervous." Sting admitted. "Natsu and I were never exactly _close_, so if he changed his mind… he can just do that. I'm stuck with this kid. I mean-he wouldn't do that! The way he always prattles on about friendship and crap. Still…" He didn't seem to notice that his hand had drifted to his stomach.

"Well, in the future, you shouldn't sleep with someone you aren't _close_ to." Rogue scolded. "And if you do, _please_ do it out of earshot."

Sting's cheeks went pink "Y-you could hear that?" No wonder Rogue always looked upset when Natsu came over. Maybe he should have given Natsu's house a second chance. Except then there was the issue of that blabber mouth blue cat. At least it was just his roommate.

"I'd imagine the whole street could." Lector informed him. "Oh, Natsu! Natsu! Harder!"

"I-I never said anything like that!" Sting cried, face turning scarlet.

Lector snickered "Yes you-"

"_Never_."

The room fell quiet while everyone gave Sting a chance to cool down.

After finishing his food Rogue dumped his plate in the sink and asked "So do you think you've been experiencing any mood swings yet?"

"No. Thank God for that." Sting sighed. "Lector, can you take me to Fairy Tail?"

"So you can be clingy?" Lector dared ask.

"So I don't have to skin you."

* * *

Looking around, Magnolia seemed to have really gone downhill in the past month. The streets were almost bare, and most buildings had placed bars over their windows, and sometimes even their doors. Not that it made much of a difference. Most of the damage Sting could see was in the form of holes in walls. What had happened? Did Natsu go on a rampage? What about that old dude who was supposed to be even more destructive? Gillian or whatever?

"Sting, Fro thinks we shouldn't be out here." Frosch who'd tagged along at Rogue's request, said. "It doesn't look safe."

"You think I can't handle anything that comes at us?" Sting smirked.

"Natsu and Rogue both said you're not supposed to fight."

So _that_ was why Rogue had wanted Frosch there. Sting's smirk dissolved into a growl of frustration. Stupid Natsu, always having to be the dominant one and getting him pregnant. And then not showing up without any warning too.

"Sting can fight if he wants!" Lector scolded.

"F-Fro thinks so too!" Frosch stuttered, running and hiding on the other side of Sting. "But R-Rogue said-"

"I won't seek out a fight." Sting compromised. "If someone comes at me I'm still beating them into next week."

Frosch nodded. That made sense.

Fortunately, no one was stupid enough to come at the still not blatantly pregnant Sting Eucliffe, ace of Sabertooth. He made it to the guild hall without incident. It smelled like beer.

Sting suppressed a groan, wishing he'd remembered to bring his stomach medicine with him, and stepped away to empty his stomach of his breakfast. Then, steeling himself, he went into the building.

The guild hall was unusually quiet, which was to say it was about as loud as most guilds got. No one noticed him as he slipped in, and Sting hung by the door scanning for Natsu in peace. He could see the rest of his team hanging out by the bar, but that slayer in question and his cat were nowhere to be seen. His shoulders sagged.

"Can we help you with something?"

Sting turned to face Mirajane, putting on a pleasant smile like he would for any near stranger showing common courtesy. "I was hoping Natsu was here."

Mira's own smile slipped away. "We haven't seen him for a few days. He wasn't with you?"

"No." Sting's stomach churned, and not just from morning sickness and the overpowering scent of booze everywhere. All the things Rogue had said in anger the first few days rushed back to him. Natsu wouldn't have really left, would he? But he was still close to the guild. There was no reason to run from them too… unless he was just waiting for Sting to give up before coming back.

Seeing his fears play out behind his eyes, Mira put her smile back on and placed a hand reassuringly on Sting's shoulder. "Natsu gets sidetracked sometimes. If you heard about the Tower of Heaven incident, that was supposed to be his vacation. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

All Sting knew about the incident was that it was the reason some man with blue hair was one of Fiore's most wanted. That had to have been a pretty major incident, though, so it couldn't have made for a great vacation plan. He swallowed and nodded. "Just… let him know I was here."

"You're leaving already?"

"Yeah, I-oh! Titania!" He called across the room "Natsu wanted me to let you know I got your message, so you don't have to harm him! Okay, I'm leaving."

Mira scowled. "You should hang out here. Lucy or Erza is probably going to be the baby's god mother, right? Don't you want to get to know them?"

Not somewhere that smelled so strongly of alcohol. "I can't-"

"Hold it." Bisca snatched his arm. "You haven't been seeing anyone for your pregnancy, have you? If you'd gone and gotten a doctor it would be all over the news."

"Or course I haven't." Sting snapped, making a half-hearted effort to extract his arm. "You are _not_ dragging me to see one."

"At least let Wendy or Porlyusica take a look at you. Or both." Bisca insisted. "This isn't something you can leave up to chance. If there are any problems with the baby you need to know."

Sting sighed and let her lead him towards the girl that would probably have been his age if the Tenrou Island incident hadn't occurred. That was an odd thought. He'd gotten so used to being Natsu's age that he'd somehow forgotten he was supposed to be younger.

Wendy was pleasant, if not somewhat awkward while she checked him. He didn't like letting her place her hands on his stomach, but by the time he'd reached her the whole guild was pretending they weren't watching and he was sure that any fight he'd put up over it would be well beyond what he was supposed to be getting into. Not to mention ridiculous and embarrassing. Then again, he still felt his cheeks heat up when he watched her little hands highlight the slight curve of his stomach so it was embarrassing either way.

Wendy assured him she couldn't find anything wrong, and Bisca decided they should still see Porlyusica in case she had anything he needed to take.

"This is going to get out." She told him as they walked through the woods. "You can hide it for a while, but eventually you'll be too large and people will notice, or they'll start wondering why you're never out in public. You may as well get it out of the way so you can see a regular doctor."

"Because I'm sure they have so much experience with pregnant men." Sting rolled his eyes. "Were you the one who had a kid?"

"Yes."

"I had to ask." Sting pointed out. "No one stuck you on the cover of Sorcerer Weekly with a headline promising ten pages dedicated to the scandal."

"They won't-" he was right. It would definitely make headlines. "It wouldn't be ten pages." Bisca argued. "I've never seen an article like that last more than five."

"That's still five and a cover too many." Lector told her.

Bisca sighed. "I liked it when you were quieter. Why can't you keep acting how you did in the guild?"

"It doesn't smell as awful out here." But it would when they reached Porlyusica's. "If you were pregnant before, do you know how long morning sickness lasts?"

"It should go away soon." She assured him. "You may still feel bad every now and then, but it's worst right at the beginning."

Sting nodded, relieved to hear that. "So what's it like having a baby then? I always hear they do nothing but cry, but it has to do more than that."

Bisca laughed. "Oh, they eat and poop too. I wouldn't trade Asuka for the world, but when she was a newborn it felt like all she was good for was screaming my ear off. I don't know what I'd have done if Alzack hadn't been there to handle half of it. Well, a third. Feeding her was my job, understandably. Do you know if you're going to be making milk?" No answer. "Sting?" Turning back to face him she saw he'd come to a complete stop several yards back, eyes wide with horror. "You probably won't. I don't think men can…" get pregnant "You don't have breasts."

Sting blinked a few times and shook his head. "I won't" He declared, catching up to her. The walked in silence for several minutes before he suddenly asked "You don't think Natsu's just trying to be rid of me, do you?"

"I can see you're worried, so I won't slap you for suggesting that." Bisca told him. "He wouldn't do that."

"Right. It's just…"

"You're pregnant and he's God knows where." Bisca conceded. "I panicked too, whenever Alzack was gone longer than I thought he would on jobs."

Sting started to say that she'd had the benefit of being married, but stopped himself and said instead "Natsu isn't on a job."

"He's somewhere. Don't worry about it."

Sting snorted. His child's father was _somewhere_. The man he got together to sleep with who'd never said anything about how he was looking forward to being a father and only ever acted like he was sorry the whole thing happened was _somewhere_. Like hell he wasn't going to worry.

"Seriously. Natsu will come back." Bisca insisted.

"Sure he will. You know, I can find this lady's house on my own."

"I'd rather not leave you alone." Bisca confessed.

"You think I won't see her?"

"I don't want to put you at risk of getting attacked while you shouldn't be fighting. Natsu told you about the dark guild that's harassing us, didn't he?"

"No." Though Sting did vaguely remember Natsu having some warning for Rogue about if they came to visit, and it did explain the bars.

"Oh. I think he was worried you'd castrate him if he told you to be careful."

Whatever Sting had been planning to say to that was forgotten as he caught the scent of Porlyusica's house. Feeling bile rise in his throat, he resolved to keep his stomach medicine with him at all times. Probably until the whole pregnancy was over, since he could apparently still get sick later on. Maybe it was good that Natsu wasn't around. If he were Sting wouldn't have had the self-control not to sock him for getting him knocked up.

* * *

**STA**: They're not mood swings, he's just moody.

Something suggested in this chapter shall come up again. I'm trying to do that a lot. That bakery that was making Sting sick will get mentioned again too. I have plans for this one. Plans involving Natsu's vest. Sadly, they won't be carried out until the end of the fic.


	5. Train

**Neko-Tiara** - Don't worry about Natsu. His disappearance is more a lead in to other events than a big part of the story itself.

* * *

"Oy, Happy, Where are we?"

Happy inspected their surroundings as best he could while tied to a wooden pull. He still couldn't see any landmarks so… "On a raft."

"That's what I thought." Natsu moaned. Sting felt like this even on solid ground? Poor thing. Why would anyone _want_ to get pregnant? He'd have to destroy that bakery after all.

"Natsu, I can't see land anywhere." Happy whined.

"Can't you just-urp-fly?" Natsu asked, struggling to push himself up. How had they _gotten_ on a raft? The last thing he remembered, he'd been going to Porlyusica with some questions about if he should be making Sting eat the things Rogue's book recommended, or if he should do something different since Sting was a guy… then… blank.

Happy strained to look over at Natsu. Whoever had tied him up had decided that they need not bother with the dragon slayer. He'd been out for so long that Happy had begun to worry he was dead anyway. "I'm tied up." He told Natsu.

"What? Let me…" Natsu tried to push himself up, the winced and felt at the back of his head where… whoa. That was quite the goose egg. No wonder he couldn't remember what happened. "I think we met the dark guild."

"We did." Happy assured him. "Natsu, can you untie me?"

"Yeah. Hold on." Natsu successfully pushed himself up, but had to take a moment to lean over the edge of the raft and gag before he could help Happy. "How long was I unconscious?"

"A really long time. They grabbed me right after knocking you out and put some spell on you that was supposed to keep you from waking up." Happy explained as Natsu struggled with the rope. "Angel was there too. She told them that if they put you on a vehicle then you wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Good thing you're not a vehicle." Natsu almost managed a smile, but it was hard when his stomach lurched every time the raft rocked. "I'm gonna be sick."

"Aaaah! Don't throw up on me!" Happy cried, squirming frantically in his bindings.

* * *

Sting flopped over in bed, growling in frustration when lying on his right side proved to be no more interesting than lying on his left side. He tried rolling over again, but taking a break from his left side hadn't made it more interesting either.

Giving up on trying to take it easy, he rolled out of bed and wandered around his apartment. Rogue had been gone when he got back, which, coupled with his concern over Natsu's disappearance, had almost given him a panic attack before he remembered that he and Rogue were taking jobs separately now. He'd still had to calm himself by going to the guild and verifying how long Rogue's job was going to take.

He got to do something that was actually fun, like chasing down bandits. Sting had skimmed over the job board for anything dull and easy before going home, at which point Lector had ordered both him and Fro to bed in order to be free of their abandonment driven whining. Not that Sting usually took orders from Lector. Traveling around was just a lot more tiring than it had been three months ago.

He stretched, then winced at the sight of his reflection in the kitchen window. That only made his stomach more obvious. Everyone-everyone who was in on the secret-assured him that he just looked out of shape, and after a month and a half of 'taking it easy' he probably was, but to him he still just looked fat. That most of Sabertooth teased him about looking out of shape didn't help any.

In fact, most of Sabertooth claimed it was because he and Rogue had some falling out, and now he was going out of his way not to work. They weren't being secretive about it, but they could stand to be more subtle. The rumor of a pregnant guild member was getting to be more prevalent, now with the occasional mention of an affair between Rogue and the mystery girl. Sting thought it had something to do with the stack of supplementary vitamins sitting atop a book on dietary concerns for pregnant women that had mysteriously appeared on his nightstand recently.

Actually, he needed to take those. Sting retrieved the pills and threw together a quick lunch of leftover meatloaf, some sort of egg soup, and a bowl of pickled… whatever that was. It smelled good was what mattered. Since Rogue wasn't there to get on his case about eating properly, Sting took it upon himself to verify that it was some sort of fruit before eating it. The vitamins weren't pleasant, and that he was able to pick up their bitter scent didn't help any, but he managed to down them with the soup.

Up until then, since learning he was pregnant, Natsu would visit daily or even spend the night when Rogue was working. Sting wasn't sure if it was lonely or liberating, but not having someone on his case about his condition felt weird.

Well, he had three days to himself, assuming Natsu didn't finally show up, so he might as well not spend them bored out of his mind. If nothing else, he could catch a movie. He'd heard there was a good one out, something about a princess having to rescue a knight from a dragon, but Rogue hadn't been interested and time with Natsu was always nothing but "Are you okay? Are you sure you're okay? If you're not okay, I can…" And of course, before the pregnancy time with Natsu meant time in bed.

Maybe the pregnancy was God's way of punishing him for choosing to be such a slut when he finally got to meet his childhood idol.

The thought brought tears to his eyes, and Sting hovered in the door for a minute reminding himself that it wasn't something worth crying over and the parasite in his stomach was just messing with his head. It was bad enough that he had to go around town looking out of shape. Turning into a cry baby on top of that…

He ended up nearly breaking down twice more during the movie, making him grateful he hadn't tried harder to convince his roommate or bedmate to go see it. He was going to go crawl back into bed and curl up in shame when one of the lesser, no name members of the guild ran into him in the street.

"I was wondering where you could be. That slayer from Fairy Tail contacted us on a lacryma wanting to talk to you."

Natsu was still gone. "Gajeel?"

"No. Salamander."

Sting's eyes lit up. "Say that first then. Is he still waiting?"

"Uh…" the man nodded, trying not to gape as Sting hurried towards the guild. No one really _said_ it, but there were whispers about Sting's odd relationship. It was hard to tell if people were more bothered by the idea of him being with another man or just being in it for sex, mostly due to a good number of people objecting to both. Whichever it was, everyone agreed that it wasn't quite troublesome enough to be worth fighting Sting over. Still…

The man shuddered at the thought of Sting arranging some sort of orgy over the guild's communication lacryma, and hurried on his way.

* * *

"I'm _so_ sorry."

"You should be. I was freaking out. Warn me next time you're about to get abducted."

Sting realized how stupid that sounded the moment the words left his mouth, but thankfully Natsu didn't seem to notice. "I will." He promised.

Good old stupid Natsu. Sting sighed in relief. "Is Happy flying you back?"

"Well, that's the plan. We're both kind of starved and broke right now, I spent all the money we had on hand to make this call, so we don't have any other way of getting back but-"

"I can pick you up." Sting offered. "Rogue left on a job in such a rush that he forgot Frosch, so I can ask him to help, if Happy's tired. Or I could pay for train tickets or-"

"You don't have a fever do you?" Natsu interrupted to ask. "You're not usually so generous."

"Fine. You can pay me back for the tickets. Do you want my help or not?"

"Yes." Natsu admitted. "But you don't have a fever, do you?"

"I was just worried." Sting said before he could stop himself. No reason to hold back the rest now. "I'm already going to go through hell over this. Having the father disappear without a trace on top of that… I was worried."

"I'm sorry." Natsu repeated. He thought it was unfair that he had to apologize for being abducted, but he also wasn't the one who'd faced the prospect of single parenthood and Sting was even worse than he was at putting himself in another person's shoes so… "If you really want to help us get back, you don't have to take a train. You can just fly back."

"We're taking the train." Sting insisted.

* * *

Sting had been serious. Natsu had thought that it was mood swings, or maybe a joke that Sting was taking too far to get back at him for vanishing. He'd bought two mugs of some sort of ginger drink which he swore helped calm your stomach (and he'd be the expert on that) and dragged Natsu onto the next train bound for Magnolia.

"Two vehicles in one day." Natsu groaned. The drink did help, but it only made the motion sickness bearable, rather than miserable. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine." Sting said through gritted teeth.

"You really didn't have to do this. You can get off at the next stop and-"

"Stop telling me that!" Sting snapped, gasping when the sudden motion of turning to yell at Natsu made his stomach churn. "Stop it… Don't push me away like that…"

"I'm not. You shouldn't be making yourself uncomfortable." Natsu insisted.

There he went again. Just fretting over his health. That was all it had been since they found out the baby was coming, and even then, it was more than there'd been before. Focusing on that thought, Sting gathered up his courage and said "We should go out for dinner."

"Eh?"

"G-get off a few stops before Magnolia and eat somewhere." Sting explained. "Like a date. Like a normal couple. The way we are right now… it's not comfortable. It was fine before _this_ happened but…" he glanced around to make sure no one was close by and continued in a lower voice "but no matter what I tell myself, I can't help but feel like since we only get together for… well… for sex…"

"You're blushing."

"Shut up or I'll knock you out for another week. I thought I'd be going through this alone, or just with Rogue anyway. I want us to act like a real couple." Sting told him. "I want to think you like me for some reason that any other guy couldn't provide, because right now I _can't_ provide."

"I said I like you." Natsu reminded him, confused.

"Do you like cats?"

"Yeah."

"You devote all your time and energy to taking care of them?"

"Of course not."

"So if you just _like_ me, why waste all your time?" Sting growled. "You don't raise a kid with someone you _like_. You're just friends with someone you _like_. You don't even _know_ me that well. You only started doing something other than booty calls once I got-" he stopped, realizing he was getting to loud again "-once I got pregnant."

The train rattled, and both boys had to double over and try not to puke. Natsu took a swig of the drink, which he'd now identified as tea, and let it work its magic while Sting let out a string of curses.

"We're getting off in Magnolia." Natsu told him.

"Of course we are." Sting muttered.

"All my money's in my house." Natsu pointed out. "Since you're the girl in this relationship, I should be the one to pay on our first date, right?" If looks could kill, Sting's glare would have killed him in nanoseconds. As it was, his swat was pretty painful. "Well, you are the pregnant one." What was shorter than nanoseconds? "It was supposed to work that the less dominant one becomes a girl for repro-"

"You haven't eaten in a week, Dragoneel. It'll be two if you keep that up." Sting hissed.

Natsu kept quiet for the rest of the trip.

* * *

**STA**: I thought I'd post a day early, just cuzz I could. I wasn't tracking the time though. Holy crap. I'm about to be late for my shift.


	6. Wider

**Neko-Tiara** - No. He was basically threatening to punch Natsu into next week.

**darkhuntressxir** - You missed it. Sorry.

* * *

The third date was just a dinner Natsu cooked at his own house, since Sting now felt he was too big for them to really be out in public. He'd cleaned frantically before the blond came over, even enlisting Lucy's help to make the place look acceptable. Rogue was getting ever more protective and if he heard the place looked messy then he might fight having Sting visit again.

Of course, it was always messy.

"This was nice. I didn't think you'd really be able to cook." Sting commented as Natsu dumped their dishes in the sink.

"Well, one of us had to. Me or Happy, I mean, and he only ever cooks fish."

Sting laughed. "Lector's the same. Rogue's the one who usually cooks for us." Happy and Lector had both been asked not to interfere with the date.

"You sure you don't want anymore?"

"_Positive_. I'm _not_ eating for two. I'm eating for myself and an unborn child. That's nowhere near the same."

"It's two people."

"No, two people are two people A partially developed kid takes a lot less food than a regular person." Sting argued. "I'm full. Are you going to wash those?"

"Later." Natsu dismissed. The dishes usually piled a lot higher than that before he took care of them. "Are you still working?"

Sting snorted. "I'm hardly stepping outside anymore. My stomach is _huge_. It's to the point that I have to wear sweatpants." Of course, it hadn't started to really stick out yet, but to someone who used to have washboard abs it was pretty bad.

Unable to help himself, Natsu let his eyes drift down to Sting's stomach. It helped that the blond was resting his hand on it right then. Sting loosest shirt only mostly covered it, making it easy to see how only something as shape conforming as the sweatpants could actually be pulled up all the way. "We need to get you new clothes."

"Sure." Sting grumbled.

"You'd look cute in a maternity dress."

"You try to get me into one of those and I'll break your nose."

Natsu just laughed at the threat. "I stand by my claim. What do you want to do next time?"

"I don't know." Sting sighed. He and Natsu seemed compatible enough. Not so much so that he felt like the dates weren't necessary, but it was definitely comforting to know that they had more in common than liking one another naked. Still, if they ended up being one of those couples that relied on sex to keep themselves together, he'd probably find himself in this situation again in the near future.

No! Natsu would. That was only fair. If he really got pregnant by being the submissive one then no way in hell was he submitting to this again!

Watching Sting glare off into space Natsu asked "How about a movie?"

"Hm?"

"There's supposed to be this one out right now about a lady who saves a knight from a dragon, and-"

"No."

"What? Got something against dragons?" It was meant as a tease, but Sting caught the note of resentment in Natsu's voice.

"N-no. I just saw it already is all." He said truthfully, even if that wasn't his reason. "If you want to watch something else, then sure. We can show up early so no one will see me wandering through the isle with my giant stomach. Speaking of which…" Sting stood up. "It's dark enough now that I shouldn't be too worried about being seen on my way home. If I wait much later I'll miss the last train. Thanks for having me over."

Natsu was so caught up in the uncharacteristic farewell that he almost forgot how to respond. "Stay the night. Shadow Alp's been really active lately, and I don't want you out on your own."

"So walk me to the train." Duh.

"Even then. We first dealt with Erigor when he took over a train. Just stay the night."

Sting sighed. "Fine." He wasn't too keen on dealing with a dark guild himself. Maybe he could take them on still, but with the baby it was hard to say.

Natsu slumped over in relief, then recovered and went to lay out a futon for himself. Sting could use his hammock. It was clean enough to meet the blond's standards.

"So Shadow Alp, that's the guild that you guys have been struggling with? You should just ask Sabertooth to take care of it. We'll find their base in no time and wipe them off the face of the earth."

"Fairy Tail can handle it." Natsu said stiffly. "Besides, _you_ had better not be part of that _we_. Anyway, Ult…our contact said that they don't have a base. They move their camp whenever people get to close to it. But then they found her out so that's all we've heard so far."

"Who?

Natsu grinned apologetically. "We could get in a lot of trouble if it got out. I can't say."

"Then I can't stay." Sting announced, reaching for the door.

"Wait!" Natsu cried, grabbing Sting by the waist and pulling him away. "Please, Sting. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Then tell me, dammit! We're supposed to be acting like a serious couple! You shouldn't be keeping secrets! I told you about the teddy bear."

Natsu hesitated, grip slackening, then tightening when Sting tried to slip out. He didn't want to be a bad boyfriend, and Sting could probably be trusted with the information. Sure, he'd want to tell Rogue, but he'd keep it from the exceed and any other chatter boxes if he was asked.

"Just don't tell anyone, okay? We've been in contact with… are your hips getting wider?"

"What?"

"Your hips." Natsu ran his hands down Sting's side. "I consider myself an expert on your body, and they definitely feel different."

"Seriously?" Breaking away, Sting felt for himself. "Shit, they do feel more… uh…"

"Girlish?" Natsu suggested just before his nose broke.

* * *

"There, that should do it." Wendy assured Natsu, removing her hand from his nose. "Well, it looks all better anyway. Does it still sting?"

Bad choice of words. "Fine." Natsu mumbled, getting up to go sulk on the other side of the room from Sting, who was, himself, sulking. It had something to do with the pregnancy making him even more of a girl, but neither boy had been in the mood to elaborate when they came in that morning.

She'd have to go and see what had changed with his body, but while he was still in the mood to break noses didn't seem like the best time. Instead Wendy decided to look for Juvia.

Juvia, it turned out, was on the second floor, having found a perfect spot to watch Gray laugh at Natsu's misfortune. Wendy hesitated to distract her, but she was probably too young to be considered a love rival so…

"Um… Juvia?"

Juvia glanced over at her, then back to Gray. "Yes?"

"I was just wondering… um… Gajeel told me about a love potion you tried to give Gray… a few months back."

"Yes." Juvia's voice was rough with determination. "It didn't work, so I've been increasing the dosage since then." Well, that explained Gray's perpetual odd behavior since around the time Sting had gotten pregnant. "Aaah. The potion maker says he thinks Gray and I would have the cutest kids…"

Wendy just nodded and played along. "I was hoping to see him."

"Are you in love too?"

"Well… um… yes?"

"How exciting! I'll take you right away!"

Wendy squeeled in shock and embarrassment as Juvia grabbed her and dragged her towards the door. The last thing she wanted was some old potion master thinking she wanted to be pregnant. But as long as she could explain that what she really needed was to know how the potion affected men it would probably work out. And if Juvia learned just what she'd been buying that would greatly reduce the risk of Gray getting pregnant too. Probably.

The only one who paid them much heed as the left was Gajeel, who was a little more interested in Juvia _not_ learning what he'd been trying to keep out of Gray's drink. Still, if he could get her to apologize to Gray somewhere private, and talk to Gray afterward, it wasn't too likely to make it back to Natsu. The ice maker owed him a favor for catching the potions about half the time anyway.

Speaking of Natsu, it looked like he'd had a lover's quarrel the previous night. Smirking, Gajeel chose Sting to sit down by and pester him about it.

"Sounds like you'll be a full blown woman by the time this is over."

"Fuck off."

Annoying little brat. "Now that was uncalled for. You having mood swings right now?"

"I said fuck off." Sting hissed. "Leave me alone. Get the hell out. Drop dead you freak. Don't think all that ugly metal you stuck in your face will keep me from breaking _your_ nose too."

"Care to say that again?" Gajeel asked, voice growing ice cold.

"What? Are you too stupid to get it the first time?" Rogue was going to kill him if he heard about this. Sting didn't care.

Forgetting Sting's condition in his fury, Gajeel stood up, eyes ablaze with furry. "You want a piece of me?" He demanded.

Before Sting could respond Natsu came out of nowhere and tacked the iron slayer to the ground, slugging him once in the jaw before Gajeel recovered from the shock and started fighting back. Sting wasn't sure if he was offended or touched by his boyfriend's protective streak, but it didn't matter. Mira pulled him back before he could jump in to salvage his pride.

"Are you alright? Is the baby hurt?" Mira asked, scanning the room for Wendy. Where had she gone?

"Fine." Sting sighed. Even when he got Natsu to focus on something other than the kid, it seemed like it was all people talked about around him.

"Gajeel shouldn't have done that." The look in Mira's eyes as she spoke promised much more pain that Natsu could ever deliver. "You should get home. Rogue is probably worried, if you weren't even supposed to say the night."

Natsu must have mentioned their plans at the guild. So he kept guild secrets but told everyone about their private life. Sting sighed. "Yeah, he's like a mother hen all of a sudden. I don't suppose Happy could take me back? I don't want to have to take a train. People will see."

"I'll carry you." Pantherlily assured him. He had to do something to make up for Gajeel's terrible behavior. "I can change too, if you're… that is, if the baby is too heavy for the others to carry in addition to you."

Sting snorted at the attempt not to call him heavy, but accepted anyway. A ride was a ride, after all.

* * *

"You're late." Rogue said immediately as Sting stepped through the door. Understatement of the year.

"Natsu was worried about that dark guild that's been running circles around Magnolia. He didn't want me out late." Sting explained. "You didn't stay up waiting or anything, right?"

"No."

"Of course not."

"How was it?"

"Good. He made pasta." And garlic bread, which Sting had thought was a slight at his morning sickness, but any trouble his stomach might have planned on giving him had been forgotten in the enticing smell of that tomato sauce. "I've gone four months without sex. I didn't think I'd ever be able to stand him so long without seeing him naked."

"Again, not a good candidate for someone to sleep with." Rogue pointed out.

"Yeah. Sure. Hey, do my hips look wider?"

"Hm?"

"Natsu said they felt more… curvy, I guess." Sting blushed. "So do they?"

Rogue shook his head. "I wasn't going to say it."

"Well in the future _do_. I had no idea!" He sighed and sat down.

"You aren't going to use that as an excuse to stop going out, are you? Those dates are the only sure way to get you out of the house now."

"No." Sting grumbled. "I think we're doing a movie next, but it'll have to be soon because the book I was reading says I'm about to get to the point where I stop looking fat and start looking pregnant."

"What are you seeing?"

"Don't know. Natsu had an idea but…"

"But?"

"Well, I saw it while he was missing and… it's an action movie but I was in tears the whole time, so I guess my mood swings finally set in and-"

"Those have been around for a while." Lector informed him.

"What? Dammit! _Tell_ me these things!"

* * *

The fight with Gajeel had put Natsu in a good mood, even if he was still a little sore about the broken nose and seeing the mother of his child about to get hurt. Actually, just trying to attach the word 'mother' to _Sting_ was cheering him up considerably. Saying it would get his nose broken again, but it sure was fun to think about.

Too bad Sting had slipped out during the fight. Mira had explained that she'd tried to get him out right away in case it turned into a bar brawl. Understandable, but still a shame.

Speaking of Mira, she and Bisca had tied Gajeel up somewhere. They weren't saying where. They just hoped everyone else was "pleasantly surprised."

Oh well.

Natsu returned to his seat behind Gray and resumed their debate over what sort of job they should take next. Under the watchful eye of Erza, who thankfully didn't seem to upset that he'd attacked Gajeel, it remained little more than a friendly argument with violent looks thrown in whenever she glanced away.

"You can't go on something that long. Whenever you disappear for more than two days that blond brat shows up pestering everyone about you."

"I thought he only did that once, and I really had disappeared! It's only two weeks. Besides, look at the reward."

Gray gave the job a more serious look over. "It's on a boat."

"You're right. This is too long. I'll worry Sting." Natsu said automatically.

"Nah. I think we should go for it." Gray argued. "As long as you tell Sting you'll be gone ahead of time he'll be fine, right?"

"There's probably something that pays just as well without lasting two whole weeks anyway."

"Come on. We just…" Gray paused, eyes glued to the door. Natsu followed his gaze to see Juvia marching towards them with a determined look in her eye. "Crap."

"Gray." Juvia said "We need to talk. Now."

Natsu took advantage of Gray's absence to hide the job where the accidental nudist couldn't possibly find it, returning to his seat to find Wendy waiting there, a small vial of something clutched in her hand. "Yo."

"Oh. Natsu. I was just… doing some research on Sting's condition. I thought he'd want to hear about it, but I can't find him.

"He went home."

"I see." Wendy looked a little downcast. "Well… that's okay. I have something I need to take to Grandi… um, Prolyusica anyway."

She bowed and ran off.

"Wendy's really doing a lot for you two." Erza noted.

"That's how she is, I guess." Natsu shrugged. "Any news on Jellal's fiancée?"

Erza cringed. "N-no."

"It's not you, is it?"

"No."

The icy tone of her voice silenced Natsu completely. He decided that waiting patiently until she got up and left would be his safest bet, but after several minutes of testing his patients Gray came back and grabbed his scarf.

"Flame brain, we've gotta talk."

No volleying insults when Erza still looked ready to commit murder. Natsu nodded and followed after him.

"What's this about?" Natsu asked as they left the guild hall. "We're not doing that job."

"Fine. Um, I think it might be my fault Sting's pregnant." Hearing this, Natsu planted his feet in the ground. Gray, not noticing, almost completely removed his scarf before stopping to look back at him. "We should have this conversation a little further away."

"I'm pretty sure _I'm_ the one who got him pregnant." Sting could be full of himself, but that only made him less likely to cheat.

"What? Ew! No! I meant it's my fault he _could _get pregnant. Well, mine and Juvia's, anyway."

"How?"

Gray tried several times to word what he meant to say less awkwardly, then decided it just had to sound awkward. "Juvia said she's been trying to give me some love potion for a while, but she just found out it's some fertility drug instead. Apparently its powerful enough to affect men and she wanted me to be sure not to sleep with Lyon-as if I would-until the effects wore off."

"As if you would?" Natsu smirked. "You said that awfully fast."

"Shut up. I'm saying Sting could have gotten a dose of that potion that was meant for me."

"But Gajeel said it was dragon slayer stuff." Natsu argued.

"And Juvia said that Gajeel was with her when she first bought the potion." Gray countered. "In fact, he'd be the most likely candidate for how something Juvia had been slipping into my drink could have ended up in Sting's instead. If I'd done that to Rogue I'd have made up something to keep him from beating me up too."

"Rogue and Gajeel aren't together." Natsu pointed out

"Just pretend they are."

"…So Gajeel gave Sting some sort of super pregnancy potion and _that's_ how he ended up with my kid?" Natsu verified.

"Well, I meant to ask him first, but he seems to have gone missing. Let me check with him before you do anything but-"

"I won't do anything to him." Natsu decided. "If he is at fault that honor goes to Sting. I can just tell him about it when he's in better shape to fight."

* * *

**STA**: I accidentally saved over this chapter and had to rewrite the entire thing, which is okay, I guess, because I forgot to include that last part the first time around.


	7. Vase

**Guest** - He does not know. I'm not entirely sure if I want Sting to learn about it or not, but I'm going to have fun planing Rogue's revenge.

**darkhuntressxir** - I didn't actually write it. Sorry.

**StingxNatsu** - I missed responding last chapter. Thank you for reviewing. It always makes my day to see what people have written.

* * *

Disaster struck a shortly before the six month mark.

Sting began the third worst day of his pregnancy (the second being learning that he was pregnant) sprawled out in bed staring up at the ceiling in boredom.

"No one said you can't go outside." Rogue pointed out. "And you're not supposed to lie on your back."

"Yes father." Sting snorted and rolled onto his side. "Can't we just rent a movie lacryma?"

"Those can get expensive. Between you not working, our rent still needing to be paid, and all the expenses for the baby, I'd rather not waste money on luxuries right now."

Natsu was covering a lot of it, but once you factored in reparations his budget didn't go very far, and thanks to Sting's insistence that his pregnancy be absolutely secret Rogue had to go out of his way to buy everything, which meant a substantial increase in the amount of money spent on train tickets and stomach medicine, unfortunately. He hadn't figured out how to buy a crib without being too obvious yet, but Sting was, by his counting, about twenty-three weeks into his pregnancy so he had already used up half the time he had to take care of setting up a nursery. It would be nice if all of that was finished before something went wrong. Because merely due to the fact that it was Sting who was pregnant he was certain something would go wrong.

"You're staring." Sting said suddenly.

Rogue shook himself from his thoughts. "Right. Sorry. Is the baby kicking right now?"

"No. I think it's sleeping. Even if it wasn't, I don't think you could feel it yet." Sting paused. It felt odd calling the kid _it_. "Next time they force me to let Wendy look me over I think I'll ask about the baby's gender."

"That would be good. Then you can actually pick out a name."

"Oh, _yes_, because it's _so_ hard to just come up with a name for both genders." Sting rolled his eyes. "Never mind. If I know then you'll find out. It can be a surprise."

"Considering that everyone thinks I'm going to be an unwed father, since you can't buy your own vitamins or research this yourself, I think I earned the right to know your kid's gender." Rogue argued.

"I think if it's a boy I'll name him Aaron, but if it's a girl I'll have to call her Erin instead. Tell you what, when Wendy tells me, I'll just give you the name. You can figure it out from there right?"

"Fine. At least go outside. You've hardly left your room in a week. Where's Natsu anyway?"

"Working." Sting grumbled, but pushed himself up. "I'll go out in the evening. If it's dark people might think they're just seeing things." All the loose shirts in the world wouldn't hided his stomach now. Actually, no, any given loose shirt wouldn't hide it, but all the loose shirts in the world probably weighed enough to crush him and his stupid gut.

Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

Rogue shrugged. As long as Sting was getting out he didn't care. "Suit yourself."

"I always do."

* * *

If Sting had been honest, suiting himself would have meant hiding under his bed until his stomach was back to its normal size. Putting off going out any longer would probably result in being kicked out though, so he slipped out that evening to go for a walk.

"Don't be out late." Rogue had called as he left. "People know you're close to Natsu so Shadow Alp could come here."

"As if." Sting had told him before shutting the door. Even if the rumors regarding his all but disappearing from the face of the earth ranged from a bad injury at work that he needed a few months to get over to some terminal illness he couldn't pronounce, no one would be coming after him without confirming that. At least he still had that for protection. Lector and Fro had tagged along to keep him safe, but they were kidding themselves if they thought he could do that, just like he was kidding himself when he thought the kid wouldn't get in the way during a fight.

His son, he decided. There was a fifty percent chance that he was setting himself up for disappointment, but each time it kicked he had a harder time referring to the kid as _it_. If he had to be pregnant, then he wanted a boy.

"Sting, are we taking a shorter route than normal?" Fro asked. "Rogue said you needed to spend a lot of time out."

Since he got so little as it was. "Shut up. I'm tired."

"Tired? It's barely dark out." Lector pointed out.

Whatever Sting had grumbled in response was too incoherent for either of his companions to decipher. Rather than repeat it at their request he just slowed and rested a hand on his stomach. His damn stomach that now stuck out too far to pass as anything but the worst of beer guts. Even _that_ would be better than admitting the truth.

"Sting, Fro was wondering if it feels good when the baby moves." Frosch said.

"H-huh? Well… I guess… it… s-sometimes. I don't really like it when I'm trying to sleep, but…" Sting stumbled over his words, trying to do the sensation justice. Unable to explain it properly, he just blushed and turned onto the next street. Thank God there were so few people out at this time.

"How nice. Fro wants to have a baby too."

"Exceed have eggs, stupid!" Lector scolded, chasing Frosch away.

"It's still a baby when it comes out of the egg." Sting pointed out.

"Well, male exceed don't lay eggs anyway, so why do I need to know that?" Lector defended, not used to Sting standing up for Frosch.

"And male humans don't get pregnant, so I guess that makes me some completely different species." Sting sighed.

All three flinched at the sound of something shattering on the pavement behind them.

All three turned to see Rufus, of all people, having dropped… was that the remains of a vase? Why was Rufus buying a vase? Why was Rufus buying a vase at ten at night? Why was Rufus buying a vase at ten at night on the street where Sting had just declared he was pregnant?

"Fuck. Um… forget I said that."

* * *

**STA**: All the X in the world is a phrase that bugs me. Anyway, posting this a day early since the chapter came out and I just needed to go somewhere to say: Wow Sting. Stop being such an ass. What wonderful timing for me to reach this chapter ^.^

My dad and grandpa both have beer guts, though Dad is in denial. I also have an aunt who's had a lot of kids, and they're all still young. So once when that aunt was pregnant with her fourth and they were visiting my grandpa her oldest daughter put a hand on his massive beer belly and asked "Grandpa, when is your baby going to be born?"

...

So originally it was gonna be Orga who overheard Sting talking about being pregnant, but then Sting said 'forget' and I knew it had to be Rufus.


	8. Messy

**Neko-Tiara** - I just couldn't pass up the chance to have him tell Rufus that.

**darkhuntressxir** - Nnnnnope.

* * *

Natsu peeked out his window for the umpteenth time that day. "I don't see anyone."

"Are you sure."

"Yeah. Rogue must still have them convinced that you're hiding out in your house."

Sting didn't say anything. He'd hardly said anything all week. Not since the story spread like wildfire through his guild and showed up in the news only a day later. It would have been nice if they could have kept quiet about it, but Sabertooth was the kind of guild that was more concerned with attention than with whose expense it came at.

When the blond remained silent for several minutes, just lying on Natsu's bed in as close to a fetal position as he could manage, Natsu sighed and went over to him. "It's okay. It's not like they have any photos to publish. A lot of people are treating this like the news is pulling some hoax."

"…Natsu, you've been taking pictures of me, haven't you?"

Yes. Since Sting had begun to show. Natsu bought a camera, gone and got a few quick lessons from Jason, who'd thought that his sudden interest was cool(!) and had gone through more rolls of film than he'd previously thought existed. "A few. I'm not giving them out, so don't worry."

"I was just thinking, you said once that one of the reasons you were sticking with me through this was because Rogue told you he wasn't giving you any photos." Which seemed unfair to Natsu, in hindsight, since he'd been giving copies of all of his pictures to Rogue. "If people started taking pictures of me, and it showed up in the news, that would be on less reason to stay, wouldn't it? Especially when you could end up in those pictures too."

"Your guild already told everyone that I'm the best candidate for being the father." Natsu reminded him. "And either way, I'm here for you. The photos are just more keepsakes to stick on my wall."

"Yay." Sting deadpanned.

"It's going to be alright. People usually lose interest in news stories fast."

"Unless they're ongoing, or weird, or about someone well known. Like me getting pregnant and managing to hide it for six months. They've got three more to stalk me. And they can write about the baby after that."

True. Natsu lay down and wrapped his lover in a tight embrace. "Well if they come trying to pester our daughter you can just beat them up. Until then I'll handle it for you."

"Son." Sting murmured.

"It's a boy?"

"I want a boy."

"Juvia said it would be a girl."

"Why would _Juvia_ know?" Sting demanded.

"I don't know."

Sting sighed and wiggled into a better position for lying against Natsu. "I didn't really want any of this."

"I noticed." Pushing Sting away to reach his lips would upset him, so Natsu settled for kissing the blond on the forehead. "You're doing a good job."

"I'm going outside." Happy declared.

Though Natsu couldn't quite figure out why Happy would leave in such a hurry, Sting made it obvious when he lifted his head up to meet Natsu's lips and return the kiss. "We are in bed." He pointed out.

"N-now?" Hadn't he just been moping?

"Yes, now. I haven't gotten any in _months_. Everything probably thinks I'm some gay slut now anyway, so why does it matter what I do?"

"I think they just think you're gay." Natsu told him, but released Sting and started undressing anyway, getting caught in his vest he was trying to get it off so fast. "You really want to do this? I thought we were still trying to be a couple."

"Couples do this." So what if this would mean they were right back to where they started? He wanted it. "I've gone almost half a year without sex, the whole country knows I'm pregnant, and also: I'm pregnant." Sting pointed out, easily getting out of his own incredibly loose clothes. "You sure no one's around?"

"Happy just left. We're all alone."

* * *

While Sting and Natsu repeated the behavior that has caused the whole mess, Rogue dealt with the cleanup. "He's not coming out. Not for an interview. Not for an exclusive. Definitely not for a cameraman."

You never get a good scoop if you're easily discouraged. "Maybe _you _could comment on-"

"Not interested." Rogue slammed the door to the apartment, bolting it shut and even ramming a chair under the knob before feeling comfortable walking away. After a week it seemed like the crowd should be gone, and it had thinned somewhat, but there were still enough people hovering around that he just didn't feel safe.

Well, he was Rogue Cheney. Of course he could handle himself with that many attackers, but news hounds were something else. They just clung to the building and peered through the windows, he'd even caught one trying to slip in from a window the first day. The most he'd been able to do was snap at the man and shove him back out, because the last thing he needed while everyone was talking about Sting's pregnancy was for them to run a story about what a violent maniac he was.

…Maybe if he destroyed the bakery when no one was looking they'd be too busy reporting on that to give him any trouble. Then everyone would win, except the bakers.

"This is all Natsu's fault." Lector declared when he saw the worn out look on Rogue's face.

"It takes two people to make a baby." Rogue reminded him. "And in any case it was thanks to you two getting Sting to talk about being pregnant that the secret got out."

"Fro's really sorry…"

"It's okay."

"No it's not! Everyone knows Sting's pregnant!" Lector snapped.

"F-Fro's r-r-really sorry!"

"It's. Okay." Rogue said firmly. "Help me lock up. We need to work soon."

* * *

As he pulled his shirt back on, Sting tried to remember the last time he'd been so embarrassed. Not that hard, really. He'd had a pretty bad week. "That might have been easier if you didn't sleep in a hammock."

"Well, we figured it out after a bit. I guess I just forgot the baby took up space. We haven't done that since you looked normal." Natsu laughed.

"Normal?"

"U-uh, I didn't mean it like… j-just that… uh…" Natsu stuttered. "I mean, since you weren't so huge."

"Gee, thanks! Maybe if _you_ were the one who'd gotten pregnant you'd have an easier time _remembering_ the kid was there!" Sting snapped. "You know what, _Dragoneel_? This is all your fault!"

"Uh… Sting?"

"I should have just locked myself up at home and stayed there! I'm _leaving_." He declared, getting up and marching towards the door.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Natsu insisted. "Don't you think you're overreacting?"

"Good bye."

"Your house is surrounded by reporters with cameras." Natsu pointed out.

Sting froze in his tracks. "Well… uh… I'm going to the guild!"

"Jason's there getting a story on our relationship from the other members."

"…I'll be in the backyard." Sting muttered.

Natsu sighed in relief as Sting left. The backyard wasn't completely safe, but at least he'd hear something if Shadow Alp tried to attack. He'd just meant he hadn't slept with Sting since before he'd started showing. Maybe he should have said it that way first.

Well, nothing to do now but let him cool down. To pass the time Natsu decided to actually sort through his pictures of Sting growing and pick which ones to place on his wall. Keeping in mind that there was a third of the pregnancy left and then a baby to take photos of too, and maybe he'd want to save baby clothes and one of Sting's larger shirts, Natsu was careful to leave plenty of space in the area he designated for this particular chapter of his life. Sting would probably get mad again if he saw that section of the wall, though, so Natsu shoved his bookshelf, stuffed with mementos rather than books, in front of it.

That had taken longer than he thought he would, and still no sign of Sting. Was this one of those times he actually had to apologize? He liked it better when the blond just needed some time to cool down.

Worried that he really may have wandered off, Natsu went around to the backyard, and his heart plummeted into his stomach. Sting's scent was strong. He definitely been there for a long time, but he was nowhere to be seen now.

"Sting?"

A twig snapped a little ways into the woods. "Sting, you're not supposed to be off on your own." Natsu called out, chasing after the noise.

Sting didn't pop out and apologize, or even to bicker about how he was perfectly capable of protecting himself. Instead, the one Natsu was chasing just ran. Growling, Natsu chased after the sound of their footsteps.

* * *

Sting was not running through the woods. With his center of balance so far out he wouldn't even dream of it, though he would still insist he could manage running, if asked. He'd been perfectly content to sit and sulk out in the backyard, thinking about how everyone was probably gossiping about his condition and how Natsu had so casually mocked him after the baby had made finding a good position for sex so much more awkward than it ought to have been. Then he'd caught someone else's scent in the area. He hadn't recognized it, but as Natsu pointed out, he was the main suspect for father and surely someone would want to cover that aspect. Better safe than sorry.

He'd been getting up-a difficult task when you have a large heavy stomach and had been sitting cross legged-to go back inside when he heard Natsu come out. No matter who it was in the woods, Sting decided it would serve Natsu right to be stuck with them. As he heard Natsu come around one side of the house he snuck around the other, locking the door as he slipped back inside.

Half an hour later he had to unlock it to let Happy back in, but Natsu never so much as tried the handle.

"Should we go look for him?" Happy asked while Sting struggled to make dinner without further destroying all of the glass shards Natsu had kept from his first job in a museum and decided to hang right about his stove. "He might be out all night looking for you."

Meaning he might worry that much about his not quite boyfriend who no longer had a normal stomach. "That wouldn't be so horrible. I think he'd be more upset if I went out on my own than if he were out all night, though."

"You'd have me with you." Happy argued.

"And? If one of his friends comes we can go out. If not we can go to the guild in the morning and let them know he wandered off. He's _Natsu_ so I doubt anything awful could-ah! Crap!" Sting looked around for a long enough spoon, then sighed and reached into the pot of boiling stew to fish out a glass shard that had fallen in. "He needs to build a second house for all his junk! How can he _live_ like this?"

"If you two move in together for the baby, you'll live like this too." Happy pointed out.

"No. He can just keep all his crap here."

"You'd move in here."

"There's no room for a kid here. There isn't really any in mine and Rogue's apartment either. We'd be getting a new place." Sting insisted. "Besides, this place is one giant safety hazard-for adults. With all the work Rogue did child proofing our _sane_ house I can't imagine what revamping this crazy place would need."

Happy hadn't run into any trouble as a baby in Natsu's house, but there hadn't been nearly as many dust collectors around back then. "You just have to keep an eye on the baby."

"Yes. That's what I want. I want to spend my every waking minute making sure a little kid isn't about to send a pile of rubbish crashing down on himself."

"It's not rubbish!"

Sting pointed to the pile of rubble Natsu had brought back from the time he crashed Erza's court case.

"Some of it is rubbish." Happy conceded. "They're all keepsakes though. They're all for things that were really important to Natsu."

Sting grunted and returned in focus to the stew. "So of course there's nothing related to _me_ anywhere to be seen." Fuming as he was, he didn't notice the rubbish free trail left from when Natsu had moved the bookshelf.

* * *

**STA**: Toldja the bakery would be mentioned again.

Something important happened in this chapter other than Natsu going missing... again. This story isn't as planned out as most of the ones I've written recently, so I didn't know when to get Natsu abducted and made it happen too early. I had to rework that into making Sting nervous about where they stood and deciding to try and act like a serious couple. This time it's the real deal.


	9. Pronouns

On the third day after Natsu's second disappearance Sting admitted for the first time that letting the idiot believe he'd run off had not been his best idea.

"Not that he didn't deserve it." Gray threw in. "If that flame head went and got himself kidnapped again it's his own fault. He should have been careful after the first time."

Erza nodded. "Natsu was worried for your safety, but his own should have also been a concern."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Lucy asked.

Natsu changed his mind every couple days on if he wanted Erza or Lucy to be the godmother. Sting didn't know either of them particularly well. More than Rogue had disliked Natsu, he felt Erza didn't approve of him, and Lucy was… blonde. He guessed. She was a blonde female who seemed so completely unimpressive that she hadn't really registered on his radar before he learned she was a candidate for godmother. She seemed like she might be the more sane one to leave his son with should anything happen, but Rogue was sane enough for four or five people, and Erza seemed better at taking things in stride.

Of course, he wasn't really comfortable with the thought of _anyone_ in Fairy Tail taking care of the baby in his steed. It killed him to imagine his own kids being as downright insane as the guild could get at its worst. As it was, he was hiding out on the second floor with Natsu's friends while a brawl raged below.

"Happy went out looking for him again this morning, with Laxus this time." Erza assured him. "No one's going to try and jump Laxus."

"I should be helping. Even if it's his fault _I_ went outside it's my fault he thought I went further out than I did."

"You can't fight."

"I can still use my roar." Sting said stubbornly. "And punch. Dodging is just getting tricky."

"We'll handle Natsu. You take care of the baby." Lucy told him.

"Rogue's taking care of the baby. Yesterday he sent Lector over to let me know he'd found eight professional doctors who were willing to take me on as a patient. Today Lector showed up again saying he'd narrowed it down to two based on more qualities than he should have had the time to asses in one person, let alone eight… or six, if he just hasn't gotten around to rejecting the last two yet."

"Well that's… dedicated." Lucy admitted. "For someone who doesn't come of as very social, he seems like a good friend."

"Yeah. I guess so."

Sting would have liked it if Rogue could be a slightly worse friend. He appreciated the effort that went into helping him hide from the media, but he didn't appreciate all the nudges and reminders to take care of himself or the kid. He'd even been forced to put on weight. Thankfully, the only people who'd gotten enough of the 'pregnant male, look at his huge stomach' thing were Rogue and Natsu, so they were the only ones who stopped gaping at his beach ball sized stomach and noticed that he was, in fact, larger everywhere else. Not by much, he hoped. Rogue had settled for calling him slightly chubby-when Natsu had made the mistake of saying 'fatter.'

He could have sworn he'd told Natsu he had to put on weight too. Sting sighed.

"Are you alright?" Erza asked

"Fine."

"You're not supposed to be stressed." Erza told him. When he didn't respond she glared and rephrased it as an command. "I order you to stop being stressed."

Before an argument could start over how ridiculous it was to expect Sting to suddenly stop stressing out over his weight and his shattered reputation and his missing boyfriend and that he actually had to see a doctor soon and the fact that he was even pregnant at all, Erza shifted her attention to the door. Even though she went a little pale her eyes still lit up.

Sting followed her and the others' gazes to see three mages standing in the doorway, looking a little baffled by the chaos of the first floor. He vaguely recognized their faces, but couldn't have put names to them if he tried.

Erza hopped over the balcony, knocking over several people who got in her way as she ran right through the battle grounds to greet the three. Gray went down at a less rushed pace. Lucy and Sting were both content to wait for the brawl to actually wind down before going to see the visitors.

"You don't recognize them? The blue haired one is an old friend of hers." Lucy explained when she saw Sting gawking at how fast the scarlet haired demon had rushed up to him. "The other two are… also people who are close to certain guild members, I suppose."

"And they are…?"

"The independent guild, Crime Sorciére."

"Oh. I've heard of them. That's not the whole guild, is it?"

"They're… not in the best situation to recruit members." Lucy admitted. "Don't tell anyone you saw them here."

The blue haired one's name still didn't come to him, but the face clicked. "That's the guy who tried to raise the dead with that tower, right?"

"Jellal."

"I knew it was something stupid. The other two are also criminals?"

Lucy sighed. "It looks like everyone's more interested in hearing if they found anything about Shadow Alp then they are with beating each other up. Go down and meet them."

There was no good reason to tear his arm from her grasp when she tried to lead him down the stairs, but Sting did it anyway. She huffed and stormed down ahead of him without saying another word.

Jellal didn't pay Sting much heed, as he was busy trying to duck Mira's onslaught of question about his fiancée, but both girls noticed him. The older one just grinned, while the younger dared ask "Can I feel your stomach?"

"No."

"He doesn't let anyone." Juvia informed her.

"So you're the one Natsu got pregnant." The older girl said, bowing. "My name is Ultear. It's a pleasure to meet you." Sting may have returned her bow if he wasn't worried he'd tip over.

"Wait. What?" Jellal finally looked over at him. "Natsu got… who is she?"

Erza hit him on the head. "Does he _look_ like a girl?"

"Well… no, but they look pregnant." Jellal argued, opting for a gender neutral pronoun.

Erza noticed. "_He_ is pregnant. Don't be so insensitive."

"I just-"

"Are you and Eva going to be having kids soon?" Mira asked, Eva having been the first name to pop into Jellal's head when the white haired lunatic had begun her interrogation.

"Oh, yes!" Meredy smirked. "Jellal's a little shy about it still, but Eva just goes on and on about how many kids she wants. We'll have to send photos once they get around to it." She paused for a moment to let Jellal realize what she meant by _it_. That would definitely not be happening with an imaginary girlfriend. "You _will_ send Fairy Tail photos, right? It's not like you have a whole lot of friends to send baby photos too."

"Go away." Jellal ordered. The command was nearly lost under Mira's squeal of excitement and Ultear's laughter.

"Would you like me to do that before or after we tell them about Natsu?" Meredy asked.

At the mention of his name all bickering stopped. Everyone looked either at Meredy, hoping for news, or Sting, trying to gauge his reaction. When Meredy followed their gazes to the blond he scoffed and looked away. "They probably just tied him to a raft again."

"So you can't act concerned when everyone's looking at you." Lucy muttered.

"It's more serious than that." Meredy said before Sting had a chance to hit Lucy. "We ran into him this morning."

"That sounds much less serious." Gray told her.

"He attacked us." Meredy clarified. "He didn't say a word. He just came at us with several wizards at his side. They all had the Shadow Alp mark on them."

Before anyone could say anything, Ultear spoke up. "We couldn't find any evidence that it was an illusion, and even if that was the case then they have both a very powerful illusionist and their own fire dragon slayer. If we captured him I could see if he's been brainwashed. I have some…" she glanced to Jellal, who was smiling pleasantly at her "…uh… some experience in brainwashing, so I may be able to undo it if that's the case."

They started talking about how they could go about trapping Natsu then. A few mentioned possibly using Sting to draw him out, but those were quickly shot down by people concerned with the baby's safety. When it became obvious to Erza that Sting was going to continue arguing his way into plans she excused both of them. Extracting him from the guild was tricky, since she couldn't just knock him out with a swift punch to the gut and carry him off. She had to get a good grip on his arms from behind and drag him out.

His protests were already giving her a headache by the time she got him out of the guild. When he saw she was dragging him all the way to the girls' dorm they became unbearable.

"If they have Natsu that puts you at risk." Erza told him. "We'll contact Rogue and let him know what happened.

"But-"

"You will wait with Rogue." Erza said more forcefully. "We will handle Natsu."

* * *

**STA**: Originally the fake fiance was going to be named Eve, which I think is an awesome girl's name. Then I remembered there's a boy named Eve in this series, and this story already has enough gayness without that added implication.


	10. Turtle

**STA**: Fun fact: when on their backs, turtles are capable of flipping themselves over. That's not really relevant. I just wanted to throw that out there.

More relevant is that Sting is 6 and a half months pregnant in this chapter. I lost track, so I'm leaving this to remind myself.

* * *

They'd finally gotten photos of him when he returned home. Rogue, figuring that freaking out over the pictures of his stomach in every tabloid would keep Sting too busy to worry about Natsu, had been buying every issue he could find in the past week that was running an article on the pregnancy. So far it was working.

It was working too well. "Why can't he come here? If I leave again they'll just get more photos. The ones they have now are just the same shot at different angles, but that's just because they had no idea where I was until I go to the apartment. If they see me leave then they'll be able to follow me."

"They stopped watching," Rogue told him. That wasn't quite true. A different man had been standing on their street hiding a camera behind a booth for roasted chestnuts for four days now.

Sting grunted and moved to change positions on the couch. "So no one will notice me walking down the street? I'm not the most invisible of…" he paused, checking his position.

"You _have _to go to the doctor's office. You… Sting, what are you doing?"

Sting tried to get up a few times then turned to Rogue, fighting down a blush. "I think I'm stuck."

"You're just lying on the couch. Can't you roll over?"

"No. Rogue, I can't get up," Sting insisted, trying his hardest anyway.

"That's… funny," Rogue decided. He already couldn't help but grin. No point in hiding it.

"No it's not! This is really uncomfortable!" Sting cried. "Rogue! Help!"

Rogue stared at Sting for long and hard, then asked, "so you can refuse to go to the hospital?"

"Are you serious?"

"Don't answer my question with a question."

"Fine, I'll go! Help me up!"

"Wait just a minute," Rogue told him, sending Frosch and Lector a look to let them know not to help the blond up. To all three's surprise, he disappeared into another room.

"…Lector?"

"He said to wait., Lector told him. "The invincible Sting should be able to sit up on his own, anyway." Lector and Frosch both burst out in laughter.

"Seriously." Oh _God_. Was he fighting back tears? His day had gone from annoying to nightmarish in the blink of an eye. "This is starting to hurt."

"Rogue should be back soon," Frosch guessed.

It took Rogue over five minutes to return. Even though they'd purchased a video camera in a shopping splurge when they first became readily available to the public, the two had never used it much. It had taken him a while to find it.

"No," Sting told him when he saw the device pointed at him, green light blinking. "No. You are not doing this. I already agreed to go to the appointment."

"This is for Natsu. He'll be sad to have missed this."

That got Sting to stop whining for a good three seconds, before he started struggling again. "Fuck that. You aren't going to record this. Give me the camera!"

"You should come and get it," Rogue suggested. Sting tried his hardest. "Are you stuck?" He turned the camera to face him and told it "He can't get up."

"I thought you weren't giving Natsu photos!" Sting cried as the camera pointed his way again.

"This isn't a photo. It's a video." Besides, he owned Natsu something for all the photos the fire dragon slayer had given him. "In the future you should just get up when I tell you we need to go to your appointment."

"Sting's like a turtle!" Frosch declared.

"Turtles can flip themselves over." Lector pointed out.

-o-

Before helping Sting up Rogue had placed the video camera atop the fridge. That usually wasn't too high for Sting, but his stomach forced him to stand back while he tried to reach it. As punishment for keeping the video camera just out of his reach, Sting amended that he would only go to the hospital if Rogue accompanied him _shirtless_. In addition to being sweet revenge, this had the added benefit of getting the shadow dragon slayer to diligently ward off any would be photographers. It also kept him from being the only one to get odd looks. If he weren't still fuming about the video Sting may have broken down in tears of relief and thanked Rogue profusely for being such a tolerant friend.

Since he was still fuming about the video Sting scowled the whole way to the hospital.

"We should have flown," Sting grumbled.

"That would have been subtle," Rogue snarked.

Sting thought it would have been a little less likely to get noticed, but there were less places to hide from view in the sky.

The woman behind the counter in the waiting room was merciful, collecting cameras, drawing blinds, giggling for only a short while when they explained Rogue's shirtlessness, and only ogling his exposed chest a little. Both were in a remarkably better mood when the doctor called for Sting.

Rogue had done a wonderful job picking a doctor. Other than to mention it was interesting to see how well his body was handling something it wasn't designed for, the man talked about his pregnancy as if it were perfectly normal.

That wasn't to say he treated it the same. He took excruciatingly detailed notes on Sting's diet, the severity of his symptoms (as described by Rogue) and even his daily activities. This was the first know male pregnancy, after all. If it differed from a female's in any way beyond anatomy then the man wanted to document it. When Sting mentioned the change in his hips the man even did his best to measure them without taking his stomach into account and asked Sting if he knew what his three sizes were prior to getting pregnant.

"Shouldn't it be two?" Rogue dared ask. "He doesn't have breasts."

"He might when this is over," The doctor said, which was even bolder, considering Sting had no qualms with breaking a strangers nose. The doctor figured that while Rogue was holding the furious blond down would be a good time to get everything set up and call in a technician for an ultrasound.

Rogue didn't think you needed someone who's entire job was to smear cold gel onto a person's stomach then put a piece of plastic on top of that. It seemed like the doctor could have done it, but Sting had no reason to dislike the ultrasound technician other than that the man had smeared cold gel all over his stomach with a piece of plastic, so at least he had settled down.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rogue thought he saw the doctor take several notes on Sting's mood swings.

"It looks healthy." The technician said. "No missing fingers or toes. Do you want to know the gender?"

Sting started to nod, but froze and glanced over at Rogue. "No. I can wait."

"I'd like to know," Rogue said.

"I'd like him not to know," Sting clarified.

The got a laugh out of both the doctor and the technician. Rogue continued to argue for the remainder of the appointment, but as the actual mother (a term that put Sting back in a bad mood) it was Sting's call whether or not the gender was revealed.

Rogue was tempted to make Sting walk home shirtless.

* * *

**STA**: I was looking forward to having Sting really need to use the restroom for most of the chapter, but I double checked and you only need a full bladder for ultrasounds early in your pregnancy. For as far along as Sting is it wouldn't be an issue. Oh well.

Anyway, I lied. The turtle thing was relevant, and Rogue was OoC for the sake of that scene. I hope you can forgive me. I saw a video on youtube where a woman (who I think was expecting triplets) got stuck in a bad position on the couch and her either amazing or lousy husband ran to grab the video camera rather than help her. It's called "Stuck Turtle" I think.


	11. Neutral

Having called the doctor later that day Sting learned he was having a healthy little… were you expecting the gender? He wasn't saying, though he had decided that he didn't like the names Aaron _or_ Erin anymore. In his lovelorn state, what, with Natsu still being missing, he was thinking he wanted a more Asian name. Maybe Fuyu. Fuyu sounded cute. Fuyu Eucliffe didn't sound _as_ cute, and honestly he didn't want anyone to know cuteness was a factor anyway, but a cool middle name would fix both those problems.

Fuyu was also close enough to being gender neutral, which Rogue had grudgingly pointed out. Since the tabloids had gotten plenty of photos of him on the way to the hospital Sting had given up on hiding and could now go all out being gender neutral. When they moved into a larger apartment he'd picked purple paint for the nursery, bought matching pink and blue stuffed bears, a blue baby blanket, a pink onesie, and even managed to find diapers intended for both genders. Then, just for good measure, two pink baby boots and several sets of blue socks.

To his delight he was not only driving Rogue mad guessing, but also baffling tabloids too. Maybe people would get sick of the story completely after hearing them declaring they'd finally figured out his baby's gender every other day.

He needed all the diversions he could get too. His pregnancy wasn't getting any less obvious to the general public. At almost eight months he was large enough that simple tasks like picking up a paper off the ground or tying shoes were getting difficult, something his guild mates had been quick to use for their own amusement. He'd say that was a point in favor of Fairy Tail, but Natsu's guild was hardly any better.

This meant there was no incentive on that front to go to Fairy Tail… of course, he still had to show up every so often to hear the latest update on Shadow Alp. The guild regularly contacted Saber Tooth to let them know they hadn't recovered him yet, but since they couldn't leave a message mentioning that they were allied with several high class criminals and couldn't explain where all their info came from he had to go and get the details in person.

Three people ignored his obvious severe discomfort on the train to Magnolia to ask about his kid's gender. Two women sympathized with him for having morning sickness so late in his pregnancy (he did, in fact, still get queasy if he passed that bakery while the door was open) and one four year old girl asked if she could pat his tummy. He needed to get used to kids fast, so he'd gritted his teeth and bared that one, but had growled at the others.

Stupid Lector, claiming he was too awkward to carry. The damn cat could have at least accompanied him. He knew his exceed was never happy-er-pleased to see Happy, and steered clear of Carla after seeing the female cat was more or less close to Happy, and ran from Pantherlily after learning the mouse eared cat could turn human sized, and was even less popular with the guild in general that Sting had become with the homophobic crowd-though at least _his_ acceptance in Fairy Tail had improved since getting knocked up.

Not that being liked by Fairy Tail was a good thing.

He stared up at the double doors, mentally bracing himself for the onslaught of cheers, back slaps, belly rubs, and offers for beer. Cana was the only one who still forgot he couldn't drink, or so he'd first thought. He was beginning to suspect she enjoyed seeing him either go a little green at the smell or, when his body wasn't _completely_ betraying him, moaning over how he couldn't get so drunk that he'd forget he was a pregnant man with a missing boyfriend.

"Oh. Sting." Was that Lucy? It sounded like Lucy. "Did you come to see if there was any news on Natsu?"

"Yeah." He glanced back. It was Lucy, and the rest of Natsu's buddies behind her.

Lucy smiled sympathetically at him. "Why don't you just come to my place? We're all staying the night there so it should be safe to stay until morning." She paused, giving him a chance to look up and realize how late it was. "My apartment is the default place for everyone to crash anyway."

"What's wrong with Erza and Gray?"

"I live in the girls dorm." Erza explained.

"My house isn't the default place to crash." Gray added. Seven months ago he would have said something more like "because I don't want to have to wash my bed sheets" or "you and Natsu should just get a hotel room." Even more recently than that he may have said it, though he'd probably have phrased it more harshly knowing Sting couldn't retaliate. But in the past few months Gray had been civil, or at least to awkward to be rude. Sting doubted that the man had finally decided to get over his issue with Sting's relationship, but he wasn't complaining about the treatment.

"I see." Sting glanced back at the guild hall, which would offer about has good of protection for him and Fuyu as Erza and Gray (and maybe Lucy?) could, then back to Natsu's team. Both options would be noisy, but one involved less beer and older men and squealing Mirajanes. "Alright."

You're coming?" Lucy verified, a little startled by his acceptance.

Sting nodded.

They tried making small talk first, which wasn't quite a half-hearted attempt but wasn't full effort either. They asked about how his pregnancy was going and what the media attention was like and how much Rogue's parental instinct had kicked in (for Sting) and once it became clear that the blond was going to do nothing but complain about any topic they thought of they switched to the point of interest.

"They've confirmed that Natsu is under the control of Hikaru Kain."

Sting's eyes snapped to Erza as they spoke. 'They' likely meant her not quite boyfriend with the phony fiancée and the two women he kept with him but didn't seem to notice were stacked. "Ultear and Meredy both spent a lot of time with Hikaru back when… before we were attacked by Acnologia, but haven't seen him in the years since. Ultear is certain that it's not the same magic Hikaru used at that time. Natsu is under his control both in body and mind."

Having never seen Hikaru himself, Sting had no idea why Lucy shuddered at the thought.

"I see." Sting sighed and shook his head. "Well, that doesn't mean much for me beyond what I already knew."

"It means recovering Natsu will take finding Hikaru, stealing the tool he's using to control our friend, and somehow breaking the spell it holds over him," Erza explained. Based on the size of the blade that had suddenly appeared in her hand, the somehow would be treated as a Gordian knot.

"And that will happen…?"

"As soon as we can pin down their current camp site."

Lucy smiled and patted Sting's stomach, intending to speak as she did so but having to duck behind Gray before saying, "You won't have to be a single parent. We'll have Natsu back before the baby was born."

"Though by now I'm used to him being gone," Sting mused. Sure, he still wanted Natsu around, but having gone without him over a month hadn't killed him. In fact, aside from his hormones going haywire wanting sex it was almost nice not having his lover around. After half a year or overprotectiveness, even if it varied between blatantly fretting over his condition and trying to act like a regular boyfriend, the break was nice. Too bad it came at the expense of Natsu's freedom.

"I'm so glad you don't miss me."

All four, and Happy, flinched and looked back. Natsu stood behind them, an uncharacteristic smirk on his face, though pain danced behind his eyes.

"I didn't mean-" Before Sting could finish Natsu had sprung forward, slamming a fist into his chest and hitting him back. While Sting tried to maintain his balance Natsu's leg swung out, knocking Sting's out from under him and sending him plummeting to the ground. The blond landed with a thud on his side.

Panic washed over him. He'd tried not to land on his stomach. Did that count? He struggled to sit up, feeling his stomach for any signs that Fuyu may have been harmed.

By the time he'd snapped out of his panic induced stupor Gray had been sidelined. He'd had the disadvantage of not wanting to hurt Natsu _too_ badly while the dragon slayer had gone all out. Lucy had summoned her lion spirit to help Erza, and was standing guard over Sting while calling out to Natsu, hoping something she said would get through to him even after they'd explained what it would take to break the spell.

Erza seemed to be having the same problem Gray had faced. Biting his lip and weighing the options, Sting found the perfect thing to say to not only give Erza the push she needed to really fight but also, if he was lucky, prevent any further difficulties such as Fuyu.

"Castrate him!"

Erza hesitated for a second, glancing at him and trying not to laugh before returning her focus to the battle. No longer worried about how Sting would react to seeing his lover beaten to a bloody pulp, she switched to a larger sword.

"Lucy! Get Sting out of here. We won't let Natsu past," Loke called back to them.

"Got it!"

Lucy grabbed Sting's arm, yanking him to his feet and dragging him down the path.

"Stop pulling! I can't keep up!" Sting whined, struggling to keep his balance while matching her pace.

"Just try a little longer. We need to get you somewhere safe."

Of all the places in the world that one could pretend were safe from Natsu, Lucy's apartment was the least convincing, but Sting didn't argue when she brought him inside and locked the door behind her. He let her practice the good sense of securing her windows and fireplace as well while he sat down on her bed and checked his stomach again, almost expecting to feel a crack in Fuyu's head.

"How's the baby?"

"…Still." Sting sighed and gave up on trying to figure out. "Fuyu barely stirred during any of that."

"Well… maybe he's just tired," Lucy suggested. "Do you want me to get Wendy, or wait until Erza and Gray get back?"

"Wendy."

Lucy nodded, summoning Ares to keep watch over Sting while she went to search for the girl

-o-

"So is it okay?"

Sting would have asked that question himself every few seconds, but Gray had taken on that responsibility for him. The stripper was leaning over so far hoping to somehow see through Sting's skin that his hair brushed against Sting's chest. He was almost fretting over the baby as much as Rogue did.

Speak of the devil. Rogue burst through the door-the locked door-with Frosch, Lector, and Happy in tow. Natsu's cat must have gone to let him know about the incident. He hurried over to Sting's side. Pushing Gray out of the way as he asked, "are you alright?"

"I'm not bruised…" but as for Fuyu…

"The baby seems fine." Wendy declared. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "We'll need to be more careful from now on. Natsu went after you first."

Erza nodded. "You'll need someone to protect you when you come here. You walked to the guild on your own, right? In the future, if you can't come with one of your guild-with Rogue then lets us know and we'll send someone to you." Anyone from Sabertooth could protect him, but most of them couldn't be trusted not to turn them in for consorting with Jellal.

Rogue glanced up at her and nodded his approval before returning to questioning Wendy on the details, and also did she happen to figure out the gender?

"Do I need an escort to buy groceries too?" Sting asked. "Maybe you can just lock me up beneath the guild for safekeeping and call it a day."

"Makarov has some stuff under the guild that he doesn't want us going near, but maybe Rogue could throw out your bedroom key," Lucy suggested. Sting took a swing at her, but his blows were pretty easy to dodge as of late.

"Rogue would have to change the doorknob so his bedroom can lock," Frosch pointed out. Rogue struggled to maintain his composure as the cat went on. "Fro thinks it would be good if Sting could lock his door. Then when Natsu comes over you can't accidentally walk in on them when they're being quiet. Last time Fro did that-"

"That's enough." Sting told him.

"Yeah. I don't need to hear about what Natsu and Sting do when they're alone," Gray agreed. "Just knowing how often they got together is a little…" he paused, remembering the potion and biting his tongue. He needed to try and act civil-at least until the kid was old enough that it didn't keep Sting awake at night. _Then_ he could get back to being disgusted by Sting and Natsu's fucking like rabbits.

"_You_ didn't have to listen," Rogue said. "I'm hoping that knowing they could get pregnant will make them cut back." A lot. Maybe enough that it would be an occasional 'buy a hotel room' situation rather than an at least weekly house visit.

"If that were the case it probably would, but since-" Gray cut himself off, instantly earning both slayers' attention.

"Since…?" Sting prodded.

"It's not import-"

"I'd be interested in hearing this," Rogue told him.

Gray sighed. "Okay, Natsu and I were going to wait until Sting got back in sha-ahem-until Sting wasn't pregnant anymore so that he could better exact his revenge, but we found out that the ridiculous reason Gajeel told him about with dragon slayers basically changing gender wasn't actually the case."

"Go on." Whoa. Since when could Sting sound that dark?

Gray glanced around at the others. Rogue was pretty no nonsense, and probably wouldn't care about Gray's part anyway. Erza and Lucy might giggle about it, but then they'd let the subject drop. Happy would hold on, at least until he saw that Natsu didn't care, but given the choice between jabs from Happy or two dragon slayers-albeit one very pregnant slayer-he'd settle for Happy.

"Juvia was trying to dose me with some sort of super powerful love potion-"

"What?" Sting interrupted.

"She likes him," Lucy explained, as if that's all there was too it.

"And stands outside his house trying to peek into his bedroom window," Erza added, to give a better idea of how Juvia liked Gray.

Clearing his throat, Gray carried on. "Well, the man selling her the potion was a little confused on her intent, and had actually been giving her a high power fertility drug. In fact, Juvia told me that he said you actually can't _make_ a love potion so…" Sting was glaring. He cleared his throat again and got back to the main point. "Gajeel knew she'd been slipping them into my drink, and apparently he'd been trying to switch out my dosed drinks with regular beer, and one time he accidentally gave the beer laced with the potion to you."

Sting looked down at his stomach. "You're right," he said softly. Frighteningly softly. A chill ran down everyone's spine. "I'd have liked to wait until I'm able to murder him to hear that."

"We can come up with a more creative revenge," Rogue suggested. "One that doesn't take a lot of fighting to exact."

"It won't involve more pregnancy potions, will it?" Gray asked. "I think one man-baby is enough. Plus, if Gajeel gets pregnant then the whole guild will have to suffer through his mood swings."

Rogue and Sting exchanged looks. "I'll omit that from the plan," Rogue decided.

* * *

**STA**: I didn't realize until after I got attached to the name Fuyu that Fuyu Eucliffe sounds funny, so I'm open for suggestions on a middle name.

...Are gender neutral diapers more common than gender specifics? I've never had to shop for them myself. I just know that all our Christmas movies that my grandpa recorded during a marathon when I was five advertise diapers designed specifically for boys or girls.


	12. No

They were having trouble convincing Minerva to show them where to get the proper Victorian era undergarments they needed, so the revenge plans were on hold until she cracked.

In the meantime, Rogue was being let in on the Natsu rescue operation while Sting was under house arrest so he wouldn't try to get in on the rescue again. No one felt like putting up with any more arguments where he was used as bait.

Sting himself wasn't too up for it either after being struck by Natsu the other day. He was content to stay at Lucy's and raid her fridge while the guild went out to get his lover back. It would have made more sense to go to Bisca's, since she (and Asuka, apparently) were the ones watching over him, but until he knew Natsu wasn't going to attack him again Sting didn't really want to go out.

He definitely wasn't afraid, though! Sting Eucliffe didn't get scared that easily. He was just reasonably concerned about his child's wellbeing. That was all.

"If Sing is fwaid of Nazu he can say so," Asuka assured him. Sting couldn't glare at a little girl, not when he was going to have a little girl of his own in only a month, so he gave Bisca a silencing look instead.

Having experienced firsthand how hard it was to maneuver around a small child _and_ how difficult being heavily pregnant could be, Bisca ignored the look and kept laughing.

"This isn't funny."

"If Rogue were in your place and you were in mine, would you laugh?"

"…Okay. Maybe it's funny, but I'm not amused," Sting grumbled, crossing his arms for extra effect. He didn't know which offended him more, that a small child had accused him of being scared or that he was no longer an even remotely credible threat. "And for the record, I'm not afraid of Natsu. I'm just worried about Fuyu."

"You're afraid that if you go out, Natsu will hurt your kid," Bisca rephrased.

Sting growled, but gave up on arguing. "You didn't have to deal with this kind of chaos while you were pregnant, did you?"

"My husband getting abducted by a dark guild and brainwashed to attack me an nearly kill our unborn child? No. We had some financial trouble, with the guild failing and all, but that was it."

"Natsu and I aren't married."

"You should be," Bisca told him. "You two made a cute couple when you stopped fooling around and actually acted like a proper couple. It's too late to plan out a wedding before you give birth-unless you want to elope-but I think you two should get married as soon as you can. Even if not everyone is comfortable with the idea of two men being together, it is more proper that way. You can't plan on raising… what are you naming the kid?"

"Fuyu."

"You can't plan on raising Fuyu without Natsu, can you?"

Sting shook his head. Even if he didn't exactly trust Natsu with a small, easily breakable child, he'd been certain from the start that he wanted Natsu there. Even if he hadn't there was no denying that Natsu was the father. He had as much of a right-or almost as much of one at least-to know his child. Natsu would throw a fit so loud he'd make the whole town go deaf if Sting told him to stay away from their daughter anyway.

He hadn't realized he'd wrapped his arms around his stomach until Bisca asked, "the baby's really grown on you, hasn't it?"

"Y-yeah." No point in trying to hide it. "She has, I gu-shit!"

"Shit!" Asuka repeated, giggling while Bisca tried to convince her not to repeat him. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit!"

Once Asuka had finally grown bored with telling Mommy her new word, Bisca turned to glare at Sting. "You can't use that sort of language around small children! Do you want _your_ baby saying that?"

"No." He didn't care, but if that shut her up… Besides, he'd inadvertently distracted her from noticing he'd let slip Fuyu's gender. Bisca wouldn't tell the tabloids if he asked, but the one Sting really wanted to keep it from was Rogue, and everyone around him seemed to have agreed that the shadow slayer had earned the right to know.

Bisca sighed. "You should work on fixing your language. Maybe a swear jar. I'm sure you'd fill it in time to pay for the wedding."

"Y-yeah… right…" The wedding. Of course… "So. This may sound odd, but do you know where you can buy women's Victorian era undergarments?" Seeing the look Bisca gave him, Sting added, "It's for Gajeel." She still needed more details to get it. "As payback for dosing me."

"With what?"

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to warn him."

Bisca got a good laugh out of the whole story, and promised to save him the trouble of picking out old fashion underskirts himself so long as he paid her back for them. Since she was staying at home to support Asuka while the little girl started school, she could even adjust them in case she couldn't find anything that would fit. That would save him and Rogue the trouble of having to size Gajeel up themselves. Sting mentally checked that off the list and began working out the details of how to get enough bubble gum without calling too much attention to their stockpiling to turn heads.

Even though all he'd had to do was listen to Bisca draw out wedding plans in her head and help her convince Asuka that words he used were generally ones to avoid, both activities proved to be exhausting. Sting didn't even think the pregnancy had anything to go with him being so tired. Once he was excused from Asuka convincing duties he crawled under Lucy's covers and passed out.

-o-

"Should we wake him?"

"He looks huge."

"It has been a while. He really started growing right after you vanished."

"Sh! He's waking up!"

Sting groaned and looked up at all the speakers. Way too many. How many people could fit around his bed anyway? And since when did he have own pink sheets? Even Fuyu's were blue.

"Sting, I'm sure you're still sleepy, but can I have my bed back?" Luck asked. That explained the pink.

"Sure." Sting sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking up at all the people watching him again. Lucy looked like she'd been in a fierce, epic battle, then taken the time to shower before asking for him to vacate her bed. Rogue looked indifferent. Gray, who looked as injured as Lucy but not as clean, looked flat out amused. Natsu showed the most damage, but also the best reaction, grinning from ear to ear at the sight of his very pregnant lover. Sting's heart skipped a beat seeing that look again, but there were a dozen people crowded into the room all staring at him, so he tried not to let too much relief show.

"I missed you," Natsu said, wrapping Sting in a hug the second the blond was on his feet. "I missed you, Sting."

Did he not realize people were watching? "Yeah. I missed you too. You're getting blood on me."

"Eh?" Natsu backed up and looked. Sure enough, blood had leaked from the gash in his chest onto Sting's oversized shirt. "I should clean that up before we do this."

"Do _what_?" Sting could think of a couple things he'd like to do with Natsu now that his lover had gotten the mushy reunion out of his system, but none of them were things he'd do in Lucy's apartment. Especially when there were other people in Lucy's apartment.

Still grinning like a maniac, Natsu looked to Bisca, who nodded encouragingly. Erza and Gray both gave him thumbs up. Ultear ducked out of the room so no one would see her trying not to laugh.

Sting's stomach plummeted as Natsu got down on one knee and said "Sting, will you marry me?"

"No."

Everyone froze.

"Wh…what?" Gray asked, since Natsu had gone completely blank with shock.

And now he looked like the jackass who really couldn't care less about his boyfriend. His boyfriend who'd just gotten back from weeks under the control of someone else thanks to his leading the boy out into the woods. Sting tried hastily to explain himself. "I don't _want_ to marry you. I like our relationship where it is. Fu…" he glanced at Asuka. "Something between a couple and friends with benefits. Rogue and I just moved into a new apartment that's a little closer to Magnolia and we can arrange something for you to come and be with Fuyu. Living in the pigsty you call a home, or whatever home you'll turn into a pigsty, is my idea of hell."

Natsu sputtered, trying for several painful seconds to say _anything_ before finally managing to say, "but didn't you tell me you _weren't_ comfortable with us like that?"

"When I was only a few months pregnant, you vanished without a trace, and I wasn't completely convinced you were with me in this? Yeah. But now I'm pretty sure that you'd try to be a part of the kid's life whether or not there's a ring on my finger, and really I don't _want_ a ring on my finger. I'm not a girl for fuck's sake." He didn't notice Bisca scowling and trying to distract Asuka from the conversation. "Besides, I just went over a month without you, and it didn't kill me."

"So… you're not… in love?" Natsu asked, not sure if he wanted either answer. Good friends with benefits had been a nice place to be, but they were going to be parents, right? Shouldn't parents love one another?

"Nope," Sting assured him.

"Shit!" Asuka exclaimed.

* * *

**STA**: The next chapter picks up right where this one left off, so really the only reason to end here was to get that line from Asuka. Actually, chapter 14 picks up right after 13 too. Most of my chapters are at least a few days, if not weeks, separate from one another so it always feels weird to have a bunch of chapters in a row picking up where the previous one left off.


	13. Linked

To little Asuka's relief the silence only lasted a few seconds before Jellal doubled over laughing. Trying to assure Erza and Meredy through gasps of air that he was only amused by the small child's appropriately timed language and not that Natsu had been shot down, so could they please stop hitting him?

As Gray moved to comfort him, Natsu scowled and asked, "but… but what if _this_ happens again?"

Glancing at anyone else could let Gajeel know he needed to watch his back, so Sting kept his gaze focused on Natsu and assured him, "I'm not too worried about that."

Damn cotton candy haired asshole. If he hadn't known about Juvia's potion-which he knew that Natsu knew about-then he'd have said yes out of concern over getting pregnant again. He'd never even considered someone has stupidly happy-go-lucky as Natsu could be manipulative.

"Well… but… but…" Natsu looked for someone, anyone, who could help.

Sting decided it would be best to end this while he still had the opening. If Natsu wanted to continue arguing about putting a ring on his finger then they could do it in private. "Meredy!" he called out while Natsu was still stuttering. "I needed to ask you about something."

"Oh! Uh… sure, what?"

"You're the one who knows that trick for making people experience what another person is feeling, right?"

"Well, yes. I can only do it when…" he voice faded away as Sting led her out of the room.

Natsu sat down on Lucy's bed, stunned. "Do you… think it's because I hit him the other day? I wouldn't have! I couldn't stop myself and-"

"I think it's just that you two aren't compatible enough to live together," Rogue told him, mentally adding that this was yet another trait you shouldn't want in someone you're sleeping with. Sting was in for an earful when they got home.

"So if I learned how to clean…?"

"And stopped hoarding," Gray suggested.

Lucy wrapped her arms around Natsu's chest, reassuring him more warmly than she'd ever dare while a certain white dragon slayer could see her getting physical with his boyfriend. "He said he still likes you, and he's not keeping you from seeing the baby," she pointed out. "Sting started calling it Fuyu, by the way. You should try and come up with a middle name for it before he gets total control."

"It? Do we still not know the gender?" Natsu asked.

Rogue growled. "He isn't telling."

"Sing-ni is hafing a witta sista," Asuka told them.

"Aw!" Lucy released Natsu to scoop the little girl up. "You want a baby sister, huh?"

"Yes!" Asuka chirped.

"Bisca, you should get to work," Lucy teased.

"Ha ha. No. Just ask Sting if he plans on being pregnant again. No sane woman would go through that twice."

"No normal man would go through it once." Jellal muttered under his breath.

Hearing that, a wicked grin spread on Erza's face and she announced, "Asuka might get her little sister yet. Jellal told me while we were on our way to ambush Shadow Alp that Eva's expecting."

While Jellal tried to ward of the flurry of curious questions this spurred, Mira, Cana, and Levy being egged on by Ultear as they harassed the man for details, Bisca asked, "how did the ambush go? Obviously you rescued Natsu."

Lucy nodded. "We were able to get him back. A lot of or attack power was focused on Kain so we managed. But they started fleeing as soon as we broke the spell on Natsu, and we were all injured from fighting him and Kain, and he was injured from fighting all of us. We had to let them get away."

"I see." Bisca covered Asuka's ears as she continued, not because of her own conversation, but because she could hear Jellal insisting that he wasn't telling Cana what his fictitious fiancée was like in bed. "That's unfortunate. Let's hope they don't lash out at us for this."

"I know." Lucy shuddered. "Did you hear Sting describe how Natsu went missing? Imagine if they'd grabbed him a few minutes earlier rather than waited to lead Natsu away."

Normally that would have made Natsu go rigid, unable to fully contain his anger at the idea that someone might take _his_ lover and _his_ baby hostage. Before he had a chance to snap, fortunately, he was distracted by a sudden weight hanging off of his front. Rather than try and inspect this his hands moved to rub his back, which had begun to ache.

Sting and Meredy walked back into the room, the latter making a b-line for Jellal and telling the girls excitedly about the plans Eva had been making since learning she had a bun in the oven.

Not interested in some total stranger and a near stranger's coming child, Sting made his way back to Natsu, a hand moving to his stomach as he felt Fuyu wriggle around. Natsu jolted and felt the area in front of his own stomach, trying to figure out where exactly he we being touched.

Spotting a black mark, like a chain with a heart in the center, wrapping around both boys' wrists, Gray laughed. "You had Meredy link the two of you?"

"I don't know how much longer they're going to be here, and if I'm going through labor because of him then he's not getting off easy," Sting explained.

Meredy momentarily broke away from spinning Jellal deeper into a web of lies to say, "I'm a firm believer in the idea that a man should have to suffer through all the pregnancy discomforts of a wom-er-of his significant other."

"Nice save," Sting grumbled.

"Wait." Mira pushed away from the mini swarm around Jellal, eyes alit with curious hope. "So will Jellal be going through the same things Eva does?"

Meredy considered it for a moment. It would be fun to say yes, but if they ran into Jellal within the next eight months-very likely considering how hard he pushed to help the guild while pretending there was no specific reason he wanted to see them-they might want to know why she didn't go through with it. Even if she pretended she had, Jellal wouldn't act like he felt pregnant. He hadn't been paying enough attention to Sting to know how that looked anyway.

"Maybe… if he really got Erza pregnant…" Meredy mumbled to herself.

She'd been just a little too loud. Erza and Jellal both turned bright red. Since the latter was still swarmed by girls now letting him know he absolutely couldn't be unfaithful to Eva when she was about to be a mother, Erza took it upon herself to punt Meredy through the wall.

While Lucy sobbed over the destruction of her apartment and Erza, Jellal, and everyone interested in the baby that had been fabricated for Jellal, tried to assure her that it was repairable, Sting slipped over to Natsu and whispered, "if you aren't a threat anymore then I don't have any reason to stay. We can go to my place to celebrate getting you back. It's larger than the old apartment. You should see it. My new bedroom needs to know what it's in for."

Natsu shook his head. "Rogue said that if I took you to see if you were pregnant then we couldn't have sex at your place."

Rogue considered telling Natsu that he'd set that condition more to deter him from getting Sting checked for something as ridiculous as a _male_ _pregnancy_ than to stop them from sleeping together, but then he realized he was considering telling Natsu that they could still make a ruckus less than ten feet from where he slept. He stayed silent.

"Well…" Sting gave Rogue a pleading look mixed with disapproval. The restriction wouldn't last long. "We'll need to come up with something else to celebrate then."

"Yeah. Celebrate my getting shot down when I proposed." Natsu's laugh came out just a little too bitter.

"I have something for that," Rogue piped up. "I got a video that I thought you might like to-"

"Is it the turtle video?" Sting demanded.

"It's the turtle video."

"What's the turtle video?" Natsu asked.

"You are _not_ showing him the turtle video."

"You just turned down a marriage proposal. I think you've both earned him seeing the turtle video."

"Fro thinks Sting should recreate it."

"And Sting thinks Fro is sleeping outside tonight," Sting snapped.

"I want to see the turtle video, " Natsu decided. If Sting wanted it kept secret it was probably good.

"He wants to see the video. We can show him it next time he visits," Lector decided.

Sting flipped his cat off and gave up on arguing it, slumping over on Natsu's shoulder. It felt a little odd, feeling pressure on his own shoulder when he did that, but if it meant Natsu got to feel every contraction with him in a few weeks it would be worth it.

"But you know… that's just for being rejected," Natsu pointed out. "Sting and I were trying to figure out how to celebrate my being de-brainwashed."

"You're _not_ doing anything in the new apartment," Lector warned them. "Natsu and Rogue had an agreement and I don't want to hear it either."

Natsu scowled and began working out how hard it would be to get a hotel room without Sting's belly drawing attention to the two of them-and to what the two of them were doing. Just as he was deciding that wouldn't work at all Rogue suggested the last thing either parent to be had expected from him.

"Let's go destroy the bakery."

* * *

**STA**: I _really_ should have planned this story better. Originally Shadow Alp was supposed to have a huge plot heavy role, but I ended up mostly just writing a fluffy mpreg with a little relationship drama. In fact, after this SA pretty much gets dropped completely. Just for the record, there are about 2 chapters left. One more fluff. Then the birth. Maybe if I really feel like it I'll try to work something else back in, but I'm starting school on Monday so I won't have the time to try and actually write some genuine SA action into the last month of Sting's pregnancy. That's too bad. It would have been so much fun to have him go into labor while being held hostage or...

Scratch that. Plotyness shall be worked on. After _The Heir_ It kills me to think that I have the potential to top Lucia almost giving birth while locked in a wine cellar with Haru and I'm just _not taking the opportunity_. I'm gonna need to take a quick break from the story to work it out, though.

Man. It's a good thing my last round of author's notes for this chapter got deleted by an unfortunately timed auto logout or I'd never have said just the right thing to keep me going. Now I can actually make use of the buildup I stuck in the story earlier. This is gonna be fun!


	14. Hotel

**STA**: Pre chapter announcement! Woo! I just cosplayed at a convention for the first time. It was so much fun! Some random girl dressed as Rin gave me a hug while jabbering about how she feels Zeref's pain, but mostly people who recognized my character just asked for photos. It wasn't until the last day that I remembered a pose I could strike when they asked.

Yeah... kinda still excited from that. Anyway, here's the chapter.

* * *

"Do you know how long ago it happened?"

"The lady who's renting our old place said it was only ten minutes ago."

Natsu turned to scowl at Rogue. "If you hadn't made us wait while you went and pestered Juvia we could have made it before it blew up on its own!"

Rogue shrugged apologetically.

"Still…" Sting looked out at the remains of the bakery in awe. "Isn't it impressive. I had no idea that flower could be so explosive."

The story they'd heard was that the now hospitalized baker had knocked over several bags of finely ground flower while preparing a treat that had to be made on the stove. He had a gas burner. The flower caught fire and-_boom_. They had yet to hear the man's condition. After spending months either sick to his stomach or on medication thanks to his breads, Sting was hoping that the man had some serious damage. Maybe then he'd realize the evils of baked goods.

"Well, it's a good thing you two moved. It looks like the derbies took out your old apartment's windows. If we go to your new house can I still see that turtle thing?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Sting scowled at both of them. "He doesn't need to see it," he said firmly to Rogue.

"I'd feel bad not showing him."

"I thought I had to get any photos myself."

"It's okay," Frosch assured him. "This is a video, not a photo."

Natsu nodded. "If that's the case then there's no problem with… Sting?"

Rogue followed Natsu's gaze to the blond, who's face clearly showed that there was a problem. "Are you alright?"

"…My… shirt is damp," Sting confessed. He was speaking so softly that neither of his human companions would have been able to hear him were they not dragon slayers. As it was, none of the exceed managed to catch what he'd said.

It wasn't the warm out. Rogue looked to Natsu to see if the fire dragon slayer had done anything to cause that, but Natsu looked just as perplexed as he did.

"You don't smell sweaty," Natsu said after a moment, still not sure what was wrong even if he could feel a certain dampness on his arms as well..

"N-no. My… um…" Sting uncrossed his arms slightly and allowed Rogue and Natsu a quick peak at two damp spots on his chest before hastily covering them back up.

While Natsu struggled to get his laughter under control, Rogue walked up and awkwardly patted Sting on the shoulder. "We won't mention it. I'm pretty sure that stops anyway if you don't… um… if you don't breastfeed."

"D-don't they swell up when you… I don't want breasts!" Sting hissed, still trying to keep a low volume. "Why is this even happening now? When I read on it the book made it sound like people weren't supposed to turn into cows until _after_ giving birth."

"All mammals produce milk, Sting," Rogue informed him.

"It must be that prebirth stuff. Cauliflower or something," Natsu suggest.

"Colostrum," Rogue corrected.

"Gesundheit." Natsu shrugged off his vest and handed it over to Sting. "Here. Just put this on over it and you can change shirts while Rogue shows me this turtle thing."

Sting accepted the vest with a sigh. He'd gotten his lover back after over a month long absence, but in the same day he'd had to reject a marriage proposal in front of a dozen people while having to act unfazed, forever lost the chance to destroy the bakery, learned that he was, in fact, going to be producing breast milk, and now Natsu was going to see a video of him squirming on the couch like an idiot. His day couldn't get any worse.

"Natsu, do you need to work soon?" Rogue asked suddenly, steering both boys out of the crowd around the former bakery and towards their apartment.

"Not really. Happy was staying with Lucy, so we still have plenty of food money left."

"Good. I don't have enough scraped together for rent yet, and one of us should be keeping an eye on Sting from now on. It would be best if at least one of us was there when he went into labor."

Sting blocked out that last sentence. "As long as Natsu doesn't run into the woods on his own like an idiot again we should be fine. And since when were we scraping money to pay rent?"

"Since you got pregnant, I became the only one working, baby supplies had to be purchased, and we moved to a larger place."

That… made sense. It wasn't like he'd meant to get pregnant though, so he didn't see why Rogue had to use that tone with him. "There's also the things we're buying for Gajeel. Bisca said she could help us get the underskirts."

Natsu tried his best not to ask, but the question was too inviting. "Why are you guys buying Gajeel underskirts?"

"As payback for giving me a drug that got me pregnant," Sting said matter-of-factly, "which Gray told me about, Mr. Marry Me Incase You Get Knocked Up Again. You ass."

Natsu stopped in his tracks. Sting kept walking.

-o-

They'd been at the new apartment for over an hour before Natsu finally said, "I'm sorry."

"You should be."

Rogue took the fact that people were talking again as a sign to get the video set up, more too busy himself with the task of finding the recording he'd intended to show Natsu than to actually have it ready to show Natsu. If things really got heated he figured he'd step in, but he had no intention of being between the two when the fireworks went off.

"You're fucking _Natsu_. You're supposed to be better than that!"

Without intended to, Rogue completely defused the tension by failing to stifle a laugh in time. He'd been under the impression that _Sting_ was the one who was fucking Natsu, but it the blond said otherwise…

Both expectant parents completely forgot they were fighting at all as they suddenly became very interested in what could have possibly made Rogue so uncharacteristically laugh like that. Had he watched the turtle video for himself first? No, that couldn't be it. He hadn't laughed while it was actually happening. Maybe it was how big Sting's stomach was. That idea earned Natsu a fist to the nose, which left both boys bent over clutching their faces in pain.

"Here," Rogue declared, holding the camera up for Natsu to watch.

Natsu felt his cheeks heat up as he peered over to see the camera's tiny screen, and glanced to Sting. The blond was blushing furiously, predator's gaze locked on the camera, mind no doubt whirling trying to figure out how to get it away from Rogue before it was too late. Even though nothing was supposed to be faster than light that wasn't quite Sting's element, so the shadow slayer had always been faster than him. Keep away was one of his least favorite games as a result, and with the baby bump even Asuka had managed to beat him at it the other day.

Seeing Sting's determination Natsu almost decided to be the bigger person and turn down the offer to watch… but that punch had hurt, and if Sting felt it too then that didn't count because the punch and the sensory link were both his fault.

It felt incredibly odd to feel his whole body tremble with laughter while he was fighting not to run out of the room from sheer embarrassment. Sting made a mental note to see if it was too late to have Meredy cancel her spell when the chance came up. Seeing Natsu experience the same aches and pains as him was nice, but feeling everything Natsu felt as well was going to drive him crazy.

The remains of his pride managed not to shrivel throughout the whole video, even if he was in tears by the end. That was the baby's fault though. Stupid mood swings.

Noticing his lover's distress Natsu finally had to admit-to himself-that maybe watching the video right in front of Sting immediately after they fought over something or rather hadn't been the best of ideas. Rogue hadn't lifted his no sex rule, but that was already unlikely given Sting's current size. Natsu had been considering a few new ideas anyway.

-o-

Any consideration of getting rid of Meredy's spell was gone in an hour, and after a hotel room was purchased there was some consideration of keeping it even after Sting gave birth. Admittedly it was a teensy bit distracting to feel as if they were topping and on bottom at the same time, and there was still the issue of Sting's stomach, but both were minor concerns.

Sting lay naked in the hotel bed, too content to even halfheartedly object when Natsu asked if he could taste his pre-milk. It wasn't like Natsu's mouth hadn't been over every part of Sting's body at some point or another anyway, and he'd started leaking again so he figured it didn't make a huge difference.

They hadn't really gotten carried away since before the whole pregnancy mess. It felt… nice. Maybe he could convince Rogue to drop that no sex at home rule. He only had a little while longer where he could do this whenever it was convenient. Then he'd have to try and work moments with Natsu into whatever short time periods Fuyu spent sleeping. Given how often she went nuts in his stomach, he didn't think he'd get the chance to do anything serious.

A slight whimper slipped out when Natsu withdrew from his chest. The whole evening had felt so good. Especially after such a hellish morning. What had he even been mad about earlier? Probably something stupid. He reached out and pulled Natsu in closer again.

"Let's just stay here tonight," Sting proposed.

"Rogue won't get worried?"

"He knows I'm with you." He knew what Sting was doing with Natsu too, but Sting didn't dwell on that. It was easier to pretend his partner was too unsociable to recognize what two people who loved each other did when they went out and bought a hotel room in the town where one of them lived. It was a dumb lie to tell himself, given that Rogue had been the one to boot them out and make them get a hotel room, but it was a comfortable lie none the less.

Natsu considered it, then nodded, kissing Sting on the cheek. "I missed this."

"I missed you too," Sting muttered.

For a second neither of them spoke while they both realized what he said.

"I mean-I already told you that."

"Yeah, but you sounded dismissive then," Natsu pointed out. "You really missed me. Thank you, Sting."

"Whatever. I don't say things I don't mean so there's no reason to react like that to something I already said," Sting mumbled, looking away. "I meant I missed this. The way we were before. At best we've got four weeks before Fuyu eats up my whole life. Don't waste that time acting mushy."

-o-

They weren't getting four weeks. They may not even get one at Sting's current stress level.

The blond was pacing back and forth, seeming not to notice how badly his stomach was making him rock from side to side as he wore a whole in the rug. It was the new rug he and Rogue had got to better fit their larger living room. It was also just about the only piece of furniture not overturned, which wasn't too impressive considering it was a rug.

Natsu couldn't bring himself to tell Sting to stop. Mostly he was worried Sting would just snap at him, but he also didn't want to be called selfish, because his other reason for not liking Sting's pacing was that he could feel the horrible ache in his own feet as Sting paced around the room with feet that no longer fit comfortably in shoes and a massive weight on his front. Besides, if Sting was too anxious to even notice his physical discomfort then it probably did him some good to do _something_ that relaxed him mentally.

When they returned home and found Frosch alone he'd been crying too hard for them to coax him into explaining what had happened. It had taken over an hour of getting furniture back into place and assuring him everything would be fine before he finally told them the story.

Shadow Alp had decided that if they didn't get Natsu they'd take Sting. Sting had been gone, so they'd gone a tier lower with hostages and grabbed Lector. Rogue had run of after than around eight. Last night. He still wasn't back.

"Rogue's smart enough not to get caught," Sting insisted as he paced, "but he could have gotten an injury that would prevent him from coming back. We should send out a rescue team or a police force or-"

"Or the guild?"

Sting froze mid step and looked up at the door. Sure enough, Rogue was injured. His leg was caked in blood, and he was blatantly avoiding putting wait on it. Other than that he looked relatively unharmed, but it was enough to prevent him from walking further into the room. "They got away. Sting… I'm sorry."

It took Sting a moment to realize what Rogue was apologizing for. "Lector…"

"We'll get him back," Natsu promised.

Sting nodded, biting back a comment about how _we_ didn't include _him_. Not being allowed to even act as bait while rescuing his lover was one thing, but damn it Lector was his partner. Why should he have to be left out of helping _him_? "I can-"

"You should work on our plans for Gajeel," Rogue cut in before Sting could offer to put himself on the front line. "We still need a glue gun and the tub of sauerkraut."

Stay away from danger, in other words. Sting sucked in his breath and nodded.

* * *

**STA**: If anyone figures out what Sting and Rogue are planning, let me know, because I want to know to. What do they have now? Victorian undies, lots of bubble gum, something from Juvia, a glue gun and fricken sauerkraut. Why did I think to add sauerkraut?

Well, whatever. Knew moderately extended plot will be at least 3 more chapters. 4 if I want to draw out fights between characters. I really need to work on fights more, so I probably should... well, I'll figure that out when I get to it. That's what I've done up until now anyway. New chap every fri rule is gone. I'll try to do a chapter at least every two weeks but who knows, maybe I'll post a chapter two days in a row if I'm really in the zone. Right now I'm going nuts planning my next fic. Depending on how the current arc ends I may just have to ignore it for my story. I already wrote 6 pages of outline. I'm not scrapping that just because someone died.


	15. Water

Rogue's injury wasn't so severe that it kept him from getting in on the plan to rescue Lector before Sting paced a hole through their new living room floor. On the other hand someone had to stay behind an make sure Sting didn't pace a hole through their new living room floor, and he was the only one with an injury. He opted to stay behind and keep an eye on the blond while everyone else got in on the action.

"Fro wants to stay home too!"

"We'll be fine," Rogue promised. "Go get Lector back." Not that there was much Frosch could do for the rescue effort that Carla, Lily, and Happy couldn't. Rogue's main concern was that if he hung around the house, Frosch would be able to help Sting chase after the team and try to help. Sting had already spent the morning complaining about how Fairy Tail had only put together a six man team (and a few cats) for the rescue mission.

"B-but… but Rogue isn't coming."

"Don't worry. Just stick close to Happy, okay?"

Frosch sniffled and nodded, putting on a brave face as Rogue stepped back.

"Natsu-"

"We'll take care of him," Natsu assured Rogue. "And we'll all be back too. I've only been back two days. I'm not getting caught again."

"Thank you."

"Just make sure Sting doesn't get too anxious." Natsu waved and turned towards their ride, grimacing at the thought of having to sit in the large four wheeler for over an hour while Mira drove like a maniac. Rogue's first two reasons for hanging back had been the injury and Sting. Suddenly it occurred to Natsu that his unspoken third reason had probably been the real motivator.

Rogue watched Natsu climb over the luggage compartment that Erza had sprung for and into one of the back seats, already leaning his head out the window and looking a little green. Just thinking about what Natsu would be going through made Rogue a little queasy himself, though he tried to keep his face impassive.

Once they'd driven out of sight Rogue turned and locked himself up in the aparment, safe from any awful vehicles.

"Sting?" He called, "you didn't want to see them off?"

No response. Not that Sting acting odd was… well… odd. In addition to his mood swings he'd taken the knowledge that Lector was in trouble and he, Lector's partner, could do nothing to help badly. Whether that meant he'd hidden himself in his bed sheets to mope or was still pacing around the living room swearing like a sailor was up to chance.

"Sting?" Rogue called out again. He didn't seem to be in the living room. Sighing, Rogue grabbed the bag of various distraction he's purchased for Sting, sweets for his cravings, comics so he could at least see _something_ getting punched, a tabloid with a story on his pregnancy to groan over, and went to Sting's room.

"Get up. It's noon, and I know you're not tired."

Still no response. With a final sigh, Rogue tried the door. It was locked, but whoever designed the apartment had been cheap. Between every lock in the place you only needed two different keys, and it took the same one for Rogue and Sting's room. Nonetheless, he'd gone from mildly concerned to very annoyed by the time he'd fetched a key and forced his way in.

Entering Sting's room by force, especially when Natsu was over, usually ranks low on the list of things Rogue would willingly do. He _never_ saw anything he liked in that, be it a full moon from Natsu, the mess left on the bed from Natsu's visit, or, really, any of Sting's other over the top interests. This time was no different, even though Sting's room was still completely clean and orderly from the move, with everything Rogue didn't like tucked out of sight. There was nothing objectionable to be seen.

There was no Sting anywhere to be seen either.

-o-

Sting had been forced through the torture of riding a vehicle plenty of times before, but this time was special. This time not only was he on a vehicle but Natsu was too, meaning their sensory link was only doubling their misery, and while Natsu got to lean out the side of the car and puke whenever the need struck Sting was cramped in the oversized luggage compartment, struggling not to get sick on any of Erza's things. He'd already be in enough trouble if he was caught.

The little voice in the back of his head that sounded like Rogue reminded him that he shouldn't be there. Everyone else had saved Natsu just fine, and that's when they also had to fight Natsu. They would do a good job finding and saving his cat and in his current condition it was impressive he could even curl up in the position he had. Dammit, though. Lector was _his_ cat. He'd already been stopped from doing anything to help Natsu. He wouldn't be sidelined again. He was Sting Eucliffe, eight months pregnant or not.

His only consolation was that if he really did succumb to his motion sickness he'd probably look too pitiful if they found them to be too mad. That Fuyu seemed to be enjoying the ride, and showing it by making as much fuss as she could, wasn't helping. By the time the vehicle stopped Sting was in tears.

Someone up there pitied him, because Erza removed only enough luggage that he could maneuver his way out. Climbing over all the bags that remained was a little hard, he had to sideways over a few, but he managed. The effort took so much time that everyone was out of sight by the time he was out. Sting rubbed his stomach, which still felt off even though the ride had stopped, and bent over as best he could to get a good whiff of where they'd been. He followed their scent to the camp.

From there the trail moved south, circling around the camp. Sting took one look at the thick brush he'd have to walk through to continue following them and gave up. Just climbing over Erza's bags had been hard enough…

So what? He came all this way just to quit when Shadow Alp was right there? Even if his center or balance was way off his roar still worked just fine. If he focuses on keeping himself and Fuyu out of attacking range and stuck to spells that could hit from a distance-

"Well, well. What have we here?"

-o-

Sting grunted as Rusty Rose shoved him into one of their tents. Not a big deal. A tent was pretty easy to break out of… unless you were surrounded by a bunch of powerful wizards, on their turf, and ran the risk of breaking your water if you tried to run. He'd never admit it, but Sting hoped Natsu saw him getting caught so they could speed up their rescue efforts.

"Sting?"

That was Lector's voice! Sting looked around for his cat, spotting the poor thing in a cage dangling from the tent's support rods. "Lector! You're okay!"

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't Rogue and Natsu have been looking after you?"

"They…" Sting's words died in his throat. Lector _didn't_ want him to help? Well, of course. He was eight months pregnant, and had proved in a record breaking forty seconds that he was just a hindrance. It still stung though. "They were working on getting you back. I came here to get you myself."

"Good job."

"Thanks." Sting grimaced and rubbed his stomach. Shouldn't it have stopped bother him by now?

"Well, the others are nearby, right?"

"Yeah. They should…" Sting paused, eyes going wide with horror.

"Sting? Sting, what's wrong?"

Shifting slightly so he was in a better position, Sting reached down and felt the fabric between his legs. Definitely wet. "Lector, this may sound like horrible timing, but I-"

-o-

"-think Sting's water just broke." Natsu mumbled, checking to confirm that he hadn't just wet his own pants. "This is bad. We need to do this quick."

"Rogue's there to look after Sting," Gray reminded him. "And labor lasts a while. We'll be back with Lector in time for you to see the kid being born."

"No. Sting's water just broke," Natsu repeated, holding up his wrist to show off the sensory link left by Meredy. "If this takes too long I'm going to be fighting through labor pains."

* * *

**STA**: The initial purpose of the sensory link was to add comedic value to Sting's nice, safe, labor scene in... oh... his home, maybe Porlyusica's tree. Then I realized I could do this. This is so much more hilarious to me.

Actually, kink qualities aside, mpreg is mostly comedy for me. It's no fun at all when a docile character is having the baby. It has to be a stubborn _dominant_ personality. Preferably one with an ego so large it could inflate a blimp. So for Sting it's funny to think of him being pregnant. For someone like Fried? Not so much.


	16. Labor

Even if the moan hadn't been timed perfectly with the contraction Natsu felt, he still would have recognized Sting's voice. How had he…? When…? Wasn't Rogue supposed to be looking after him? Why could he hear Sting in pain inside Shadow Alp's camp?

Gajeel glanced over at him, wanting confirmation that he'd heard who he thought he heard. The others, Gray and Erza and Laxus and Elfman, were all pleasantly oblivious to the fact that they now had to rescue both a cat _and _a pregnant hostage.

Actually, Natsu realized, a pregnant laboring hostage. That was just all kinds of bad. "Frosch, can you go and get a doctor?"

"Is Natsu hurt?"

"No. I just need you to bring a doctor here. The one Sting had been seeing."

"Natsu, if Sting's in labor, I think that doctor's too busy seeing him to come here," Gray argued.

"Just go," Natsu insisted. "Oh, and let him know Sting's in labor."

"Okay."

"Thanks. Good luck-oooooooooh…" Natsu flinched, hunching over and clutching his abdomen as another contraction started. How long had it been since the last one? If he remembered from all the reading Rogue had forced on him, the closer together they got, the closer the baby was to being born. "Hurry," He managed to grunt before Frosch took off.

"Natsu," Erza said, "maybe you should wait here while we attack the camp. You can't fight like this."

Natsu shook his head. "Sting's in there." He paused long enough to let this sink in for everyone the added, "I already _attacked _him the last time we had a serious problem with Shadow Alp. If I leave him in someone else's hands this time, I don't have any right to be with him."

"Be that as it may…" Laxus glanced toward the camp and tried to reassess the situation as she spoke, "you're in labor sans the child. The only worse person we could send in right now would be Sting, and if you're right then it sounds like he already went and proved that."

"Mm." Natsu straightened up. "I'll be fine. Let's just do this quick."

Gray shook his head. "You stay here. If Sting has another contraction-"

Natsu charged through the brush and into the camp, yelling at full volume.

The other five exchanged looks of disbelief before Erza started barking orders. "Gray, Happy, you stay with Natsu. Cover him when the next contraction starts and get him _out of there_. Gajeel, you search for Sting. Get him out too. Carla, Frosch, go get Rogue. He'll want to be here, and I want to have a word with him over how to properly keep an eye on someone. Elfman, you're looking for Lector. Laxus, Lily, we're taking out as many of their members as we can."

-o-

"Sting, what happens if the baby's born while we're still trapped here?"

"Then it's born early in a dark guild's camp," Sting replied. Lector had been considerate enough to wait between contractions, but he still didn't feel so good in-between them. He was caked in sweat and queasy all over again and it was taking a surprising amount of focus to breath in and out as he'd been instructed for labor.

"I see. So you're not trying to get away?" Lector asked. Sting couldn't guess if the concern in his voice was over the labor or the fact that he wasn't fighting back.

"No. I don't think I could… even if I weren't in labor. Natsu and the others are nearby. I'm… just counting on them."

"You should have done that in the first place," Lector scolded.

"But then you'd still be in a cage."

That was the one thing Sting had managed after his labor started. After breaking the cage open he'd wanted Lector to fly away, but the cat had insisted on staying with him until help came, so the only difference it made was that Lector had a larger space to move around in within Shadow Alp's camp.

"Sting…"

Sting managed a smile, wrapping Lector in a hug. "It's alright. I don't like having to be rescued, but I'm sure the others will be here soon. Just wait a bit and-nngh!"

"Ow! Ow! Sting! You're squeezing me!"

-o-

"Another contraction?" Gray asked.

"Y-yeah. Ow," Natsu gasped, struggling to keep his attacker at bay. "It would've been better if Sting hadn't decided to be vindictive and make me experience this too. Or if he hadn't gone into labor early. Or if he'd just stayed home so-ah! Hey! Where are you dragging me? Let go!"

Despite Natsu clawing at his hand, Gray tightened his grip. "I'm getting you out of here before we have _two_ laboring hostages to rescue."

"I'm not in labor! It just feels like I am!"

"And it's getting in the way of your fighting!" Gray snapped.

"I don't care. They have Sting! Let me go!" In an act of betrayal to the very concept of being male, Natsu swung out and kicked Gray between the legs.

While Gray doubled over Natsu tried to make a run for it, and ran smack into someone's soft gut. Looking up, he was Kain Hikaru grinning down at him."

"I-if.. ifyourefeelingthesamepainast hatbratthenthiswillbesomuchf un!"

-o-

Lector was at a loss for what to do. He felt bad enough just watching Sting suffer through his contractions, but it went beyond that now. The blond was lying on the floor, curled awkwardly and whimpering or screaming. Lector had been trying to feel the muscle in his stomach, hoping to figure out what had gone wrong with his labor, but eventually he'd been forced to conclude that it wasn't that.

The sensory link was a double edged sword.

"Sting?"

"Ah… I'm… I'm fine Lec-AH!" Sting screamed, grabbing his side. "Ow… ow… Lector… go make Natsu stop. This _hurts_."

"It's okay. You get hit all the time when you fight," Lector pointed out, hoping it would be enough to make Sting calm down.

"I'm not in fucking _labor_ when I fight," Sting snarled through both a contraction and the sensation of a punch in the gut. "AH! Fuck. Lector, go make Natsu stop."

"But you'll be alone and-"

"I don't care! Make him stop!"

Lector flinched and zipped from the tent, flying as fast as his wings would carry him.

-o-

Natsu moaned, trying to convince himself that his leg hadn't really broken under Kain's grip as he shifted his weight accordingly. Not fast enough. Another giant hand slammed into his side as he tried to stand straight, sending him crashing into another tent.

After a sick moment of panic he realized that the snapping sound had been a support beam and not his spine, and twisted to get up just in time to see an imminent body slam.

No way was he dodging that one in time. Natsu shut his eyes and braced for impact.

And felt the wind in his hair.

Wind in his hair? He opened his eyes and looked up to thank Happy, but the cat carrying him was a little too red to be his. "Lector?"

"You're hurting Sting, you idiot!"

"You're stealing my job!" Happy cried from down below.

Natsu took note of Happy's complaint, but focused on Lector. "Hurting Sting? How am I-" Oh. There was another contraction. That's right. Sting felt what he did too.

"If I miss seeing Fuyu be born because I had to rescue you, I'll never forgive you!"

"Fuyu's my kid! And they're being born early in a camp because we were trying to rescue _you_." Natsu argued, flailing in Lector's grasp. "Let me go. I won't get hit again. I need to beat that guy and get Sting back!"

"No! Let the ice user handle it," Lector ordered.

"I need to help Sting!"

"Then go stay at his side. You're not doing any good here!"

-o-

"Rogue!"

The cry was followed by a splat.

"How could you not have noticed the window was shut?"

Rogue rushed to open the window and let Frosch-and also that other one-into the apartment. "Sting's missing," he told them as soon as they crawled through. "Did you see him on the way here? He didn't leave trail for me to follow."

"He was captured!" Carla cried. "What kind of lousy guard do you think you are? Sting made it all the way to Shadow Alps camp and now they don't just have him, he's in labor too!"

"He's…" Rogue blinked, trying to process that. "Then… Carla, can you take me there."

"That's why we came."

"Fro wants to carry Rogue!"

Rogue shook his head. "Frosch, you've met Sting's doctor, please get him as well. I don't think we can get Sting to a hospital in time if he really is in labor."

"Of course he is! Weren't you listening to me!" Carla cried over Frosch's agreement.

-o-

Women had (probably, he hadn't checked) been giving birth on their own plenty before modern medicine was a thing. If Fuyu came out then hopefully even as a male he'd have whatever basic instinct a woman got to help them take care of an infant all alone.

And if through some freak bad luck he did end up pregnant again, Sting was definitely making sure he did nothing but lay around at home his whole last month because damn would he have liked an epidural right then.

"Sting!"

"Sting?"

Sounded like Lector was back with the idiot at fault for all the pain he was in. Sting turned his head to glare at Natsu, but seeing his lover looking so concerned while flinching at the same contraction that he felt melted Sting's anger. "Natsu… your leg is bent the wrong way…"

"No it's not. How's Fuyu?"

"Alive and kicking."

"I noticed."

"Then don't ask, idiot," Sting sighed. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"See where Fuyu's coming out of me."

Sting had shimmied out of his pants earlier. Natsu leaned over and peeked. "Um… okay. I saw."

"I meant tell me."

"Don't worry. Fuyu can get out. I'll tell you where from later."

Well that didn't make him worry at all.

Something in the distance exploded. Natsu looked up longingly in that direction for a moment before returning his attention to Sting. "How are you holding up?"

"I haven't died yet."

"It doesn't bother you?"

"It hurts, but if you're not running off and getting yourself beaten up it's bearable."

Natsu wanted to tell Sting that he ought to be out helping them get him away, but the words died in his throat when Sting wrapped his arms around Natsu's torso and buried his face in the roset's stomach. "Ah, never mind. Just stay here, okay?"

"Yeah. I-agh!"

"Aaah!" Sting cried at both the feeling of another contraction and two phantom limbs squeezing the phantom bruises on his sides.

"Maybe you two shouldn't touch," Lector suggested.

-o-

If Sting had to be a complete idiot whenever he got the chance, why couldn't he have at least picked a fu…riend, a physically close friend who had the brains to coax Sting into taking it easy. Maybe blonds really were dumb, if they all ran off to fight in the last month of their pregnancy!

Rogue was growling to himself by the time Carla dropped him in Shadow Alps' camp.

It was pure chaos. He could smell Sting and Natsu not too far off, but even if he could _see_ what he was sure was their tent there were two intense battles going on between him and them. He ducked around one and offered a kick to Erigor as he passed by his and Elfman's fight.

He could see Frosch speeding towards the tent with Sting's frazzled looking doctor in tow. They'd have to manage to land right in front of the tent. Erigor was down for the count and Erza was managing to suppress Sol, so it should go over smoothly without him watching. He couldn't bear to wait outside while he could hear screaming inside the tent. How long had he been in labor? How close was his godchild to being born?

Rogue signaled to Frosch and ran into the tent.

**STA**: Waaaaaaaaaah! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry that it's late and that it sucks so bad! I couldn't balance the fighting and labor and other stuff at all and finally I just forced myself to write down _something_. I'm sorry you had to wait for this crap.

Next chapter will be the final one. I'm not writing the exact birth moment, so if you aren't interested in anything that doesn't include a male still being pregnant you can stop here.


	17. Fuyu

"Shut the door. They're going to get photos," Erza ordered. There was still no official godmother, but Natsu and Sting had agreed to pick her so she'd stop trying so hard to impress them.

"I don't mind if someone gets a photo," Sting said to no one in particular. "Fuyu isn't visible from the door, and the most they could do with a photo of me is show everyone how my stomach's almost back to normal.

Sting had put a great deal of focus into getting his old body back. When told by his doctor that it would help his stomach shrink back down he'd even agreed to breast feed. He'd been disappointed to find that his abs had completely vanished and that his hips, which really were a little wider, weren't showing any signs of shrinking back either, but Rogue had reminded him that he could still work out in his free time and Natsu said he liked the wider hips so it worked out. He guessed.

"No photos in the baby shower," Erza insisted. Sting shrugged.

Natsu stifled a laugh at Erza's failing attempts to seem like a better choice to his lover. Sting would have rather spent his first day out of the hospital fawning over Fuyu at home than at a late baby shower. With all the conditions around his giving birth he'd been kept in the hospital long enough for Natsu's leg to heal, and Fuyu had been let out after two weeks. so the one who'd spent the most time so far with her was Rogue. But Natsu hadn't been able to convince Erza with that, and he didn't mind the chance to see his daughter without having to take a train anyway.

And the idea had been popular with the rest of the guild too. Aside from Sting, the only other person who'd objected was Rogue, and _that_ had only been because he and Sting were planning to get their revenge on Gajeel that day. With Sting busy safely transporting his baby girl Rogue had been rushing about all morning getting the trap dismantled and reset at the guild hall.

Natsu and Sting must have been on the same wave length, because they both glanced over at Gajeel, sulking at the bar counter, skin dyed with green and pink splotches, hair disheveled and full of fish scales, one sock stuck to his elbow with old gum, Victorian undergarments in tatters.

"That went well," Natsu told Sting.

"Rogue planned most of it."

"Too bad Erza banned photos," Lector said.

"It's okay. Great moments like that need no photos to be remembered." Sting raised his voice just a little when he spoke, making sure Gajeel could hear him.

Gajeel glanced over at him, then downed a mug of beer before ordering another.

"I still don't get why we had to bring Fuyu to a place with so much alcohol," Sting said, turning his attention back to Natsu.

"I don't think she's old enough to care."

As if on cue Fuyu woke up and started crying. Sting was by her crib (really Asuka's old crib that had been dragged to the guild) before half the guild even realized there was a problem. He didn't quite look like someone who motherhood came naturally too, fumbling with his child for a little bit too long before figuring out what she wanted. He got points for effort though.

She didn't look much like him, with soft pink hair, rounder features and a slightly smaller nose, but Sting brushed it off by saying that of course Natsu was the one who looked more like a girl. Natsu had thrown a fire-free fit over that, but had settle down when reminded that the insult had first been thrown because Fuyu looked more like him. He and Sting had spent a few days arguing over who's eyes Fuyu had before Rogue finally made them examine themselves and one another in a mirror and admit they had the same eyes, Sting just wouldn't open them as wide half the time.

Natsu took much longer to get over to Fuyu, who had settle in on her mommy's shoulder by the time he reached her. He's had a few weeks to help Rogue care for her. Before that day Sting had gotten the two weeks, then only seen her since during hospital visits. "Fuyu's real cute, huh?"

"Yeah… though she probably won't be as cute later tonight," Sting admitted. A few people around him, particularly Alzack, snickered.

"You know what isn't cute at all?"

"You?"

Natsu bit back a growl at Sting's light jest. "The name Fuyu Eucliffe. It should be Fuyu Dragneel?"

"Should it now?" Sting looked around, wondering if he could go over to a bench and take a seat to wait out Natsu's near proposal speech without waking Fuyu up. She felt pretty soundly asleep again, but he didn't want to risk disturbing her.

"It should. If you-"

Aw screw it. He'd already shot Natsu down once. "Tell you what," Sting said. "You keep a clean house for a while and make a good dad whenever you see her, and we can talk about it.

With everyone watching Sting and his daughter and his boyfriend who was starting to glow like a Christmas tree with the prospect of actually getting to marry Sting, no one saw Rogue enact the second, extra secret evenge plan and pour a potion into Gajeel's beer that he'd managed to track down with help from Juvia. And if Gajeel was too drowned in beer and shame to notice the extra scent in his drink then he deserved what he was going to be going through.

* * *

**STA**: Since I'm not bothering to check, this thing is probably riddle with typos. Anyway, final chapter. Whoo! I struggled to get more paragraphs into this for so many days in a row that I don't even care that this is short. I got out everything I wanted. Fuyu's a cute pink haired baby. Sting is dedicated to being a mommy-and also breast feeds because that image is hilarious, and it's healthier for the baby anyway. There's still a chance he and Natsu will get married and Gajeel will likely having morning sickness in a few weeks. For the record, it does note Rogue talking to Juvia about something, but I guess I didn't drop a good hint that Rogue was still intending to do that. If I wrote a line like "We can have a second, separate plan involving that" then it would have ruined that last little bit.

And for the record, I'm not writing a Gajeel mpreg. If someone else wants to do a sequel to this-or their own Gajeel mpreg, be my guest. Just be sure to actually check out the rating system in the Rules & Guidelines ahead of time. There's a lot of T rated stuff that should be M, and a lot of M rated stuff that's actually prohibited MA content.


End file.
